My friend Tim always finds the best sayings and this one he posted yesterday gave me the inspiration for today’s post.  “My goal is to build a life that I don’t need a vacation from”.  Wow!  This got me to thinking about life as a whole and just what kind of life we strive to live?

We all make choices in the different components that make up our life as a whole. The work we choose, the friends we have, the activities we choose to do and the people we select to go on life’s journey with us. When you sit down and take a good look at those components, are the choices we are making filling our lives with things that enrich it and make it enjoyable? Or, are we filling it with mundane tasks and people that in the end just make us want to take a vacation from it all because we really want something different?

We have absolute choice over the life that we live. The problem is that sometimes even though we are in life situations that we don’t like, we are so comfortable in the mire of it all that we either don’t know how or just choose not to change it. We stay in bad jobs because we need the paycheck. We choose unhealthy relationships because we are afraid of being alone. Having someone, anyone is good enough. We involve ourselves in activities because it is “what we are supposed to do”, not because it is actually something we enjoy. We even get ourselves into situations because we don’t know how to say no, even though it is something that has no positive impact on our life.

When you come in contact with people who truly love their lives and live a life full of meaning and purpose on their terms, they are wonderful people to be around. They have found the art of making choices in their life that fulfill and enrich it, while living a life for themselves rather than a life that someone else wants for them. It is not easy and there is an art to it. However, once you master it the benefits are amazing. It doesn’t happen over night and it is always a work in progress.

So, in a moment of self reflection, take an inventory of your own life and evaluate what kind of life you have chosen for yourself. Will the things you do today be things that enrich your life and make it better? Or, will your activities and the components you have chosen for yourself keep you living a life that causes a constant need for a vacation? The choice is ours, the question is will we make the right one?

Have a great day and remember to be the reason someone smiles.

Ron