Hello everyone! I’m sure that I am a day late and a dollar short, but I’d like to start by saying Happy New Year! I’m sure that many of us are digging away at those resolutions and goals that we set for ourselves days or weeks before the New Year hit. I hope that those are going well and keep up the good work! Along with the idea of self-improvement, I’ve been trying to get back to doing something’s that I find to make me a happier person. One of those things is to start back reading.
***** SPOILER ALERT*****
Me Before You- By JoJo Moyes
The first book I read this year was entitled Me Before You, a novel by Jojo Moyes. In this novel, she speaks from a woman’s perspective by the name of Louisa. She is a little under 30 years old and lives at home with her parents, sister, nephew and grandfather. Their family is struggling financially when she finds a job working at a wealthier families house as a caregiver. What she doesn’t know is that she will be caring for a man that is a quadriplegic. He was injured in an accident and is unable to move anything below his neck. Louisa is perfectly happy with her life, as dull, unadventurous and mundane as it may be.
The man that she is caring for, Will, is depressed because he has experienced the best of what life has to offer and he is now confined to a chair. He knows what he is missing because he has truly lived the life. He has traveled, gone on adventures, dated the cities most beautiful women, and worked a job that he loved, which paid him well enough to do all of these things.
You see… Will gets frustrated with Louisa because she is able bodied, and young enough to really live out her life dreams. But the problem is that… she doesn’t have any dreams. Will inspires Louisa to explore what life has to offer… to dream bigger… to really live life.
And it is this that I want to talk about today.
Many of us are out here “allegedly” living life. We are waking up every morning going to a job, that doesn’t necessarily hate, but that we don’t love. It doesn’t make our heart skip a beat when we think about waking up and going in everyday and we don’t necessarily look forward to going to work everyday
I call this a plateau. Most of us have worked hard, studied hard, prepared well to obtain this job or career that we have. That is what I will refer to as the climb. But now we have attained what it was that we have worked hard for our entire lives, and have kind of leveled out (the plateau). Now, this may be okay for some, but for some reason, its not okay for me.
For me, I feel as though it is important to always have a goal that I am trying to accomplish. I feel as though life is too short to merely exist. Everyday we should be out living a life that we love, not just existing in the life that we have created for ourselves.
Lately, I have felt as though I have just existed in a life that I have created for myself. I have not felt fulfilled in my career and there is a sense of emptiness lingering inside of me. I do not feel as though I am living my purpose… and this is hard for me. You see, I’ve gone to school… gone through extensive training for my career… and gone to school again. So imagine surprise and disappointment when I accepted the fact that I wasn’t happy.
I have seen and experienced so many things in life, and very recently, that have helped me realize, life is short. Tomorrow is not promised to any of us. Also, the future belongs to those who prepare for it today. If I continue to just exist in life, the future I should have, will never come to pass.
So here is what I am tasking you with today. Look at your life, I mean really look at it and ask yourself, is this what I want for myself? Is this all that I want to achieve? Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life? Is this the story that I want to be told of my life? The words that will be written in my obituary or my tombstone? The legacy I want future generations of my family to have of me?
If not, then join me in re-discovering myself. It is my hope that through this Re-Discovery series, I can help myself (selfishly) but also help someone else rediscover themselves or shall I say, recreate themselves.
This series will be dedicated to my path (and hopefully your path) to re-invention. Quotes and books that discuss exactly what it takes to fulfill your dreams. It is my hope that by sharing the information that I am learning that it will one day encourage you to follow your dreams.
Today’s task is to set aside 30 minutes to an hour everyday, thinking about the life you want for yourself. Write these ideas down, determine what it is that you want to be your legacy and we will develop these ideas in forthcoming articles.
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