Am I Doing What Really Matters?
What really matters in life?
What are our priorities and are our actions reflecting our priorities? Are you and I spending our precious time on what really matters? Why am I so depressed and unhappy? My life, and what matters, is slipping away from me.
Life is a whirlwind!
Life has a funny way of keeping us extremely busy and, in doing so, distracting us from what really matters. How many times do you find yourself wishing the week away, just to get to that weekend? Or wishing the weeks away to get to that long-awaited trip? Or even wishing the months away to get to our favourite time of the year- Christmas or our birthday. Some even wish the festive season away, because for them, it’s the worst time of the year! All while missing the moments in between- missing the moments that really matter and count.
We are forever saying that there just aren’t enough minutes in an hour, hours in a day, days in a week! We go weeks without seeing those that matter and doing the things we love- because ‘life got in the way’. But those are the moments we will never get back. Those are the moments that fulfill us and make this life worth living. We need to learn to slow down and
enjoy every moment, every day, every week, every month and every year- each one we are given is a gift and we don’t know how many more gifts are in our pile!
‘life is short’
So, maybe it is time to strip back the ‘hecticness’ of life and look at what really matters to us… what little moments we want to get back, and just… enjoy this life we’ve been given!
Unfortunately, it normally takes drastic circumstances for us to see this and realise that we may be placing importance on all the wrong things. It normally comes in the face of loss- be it a job, divorce, friend, opportunity and worst of all, death. It is in these moments that we realise, ‘life is short’, ‘make it count’, ‘spend time with those you love’, ‘tell those you love that you love them’. But why are we waiting for life to shock this into our system? We can choose to live this way, everyday!
There are so many emotions we feel on a daily basis, we don’t need to add regret to the pile.
According to BoredPanda, these are some people’s last wishes:
“A Week Before My Grandfather Passed Away, I Snuck His Favorite Beer Into The Nursing Home For Him. It Was His Last Beer Ever.”
“Mom’s Last Dance With My Dad The Night Before She Passed Away After A 15 Year Battle With Cancer.”
“Dying Dad Walks His 11-Year-Old Daughter Down The ‘Aisle’ To Give Her A Lasting Memory.”
“Cancer-Stricken Son Holds Dying Dad’s Hand One Last Time.”
“My Grandma Wanted To See The Ocean One Last Time Before Checking Into Hospice. Her Face Says It All.”
“A Former Show Jumper Crippled By Parkinson’s Disease Fulfills Her Dream Of Riding A Horse For The Final Time At The Age Of 87.”
“Hospice Patient Receives Dying Wish To Snuggle Some Kittens.”
These are only a few examples, but they all have one thing in common… each ‘wish’ is a simple request; there are no grand gestures. These are every day MOMENTS taken for granted by most of us. It is only when we are forced to look at what really matters that we choose to take those moments back and enjoy them for what they really are!
Reflecting…
It’s these moments and the people we spend them with that is all that counts at the end of the day, week, year and even your life…
So, I challenge you to slow down your life and examine how and where you spending your time. Are these moments passing you by?
Are you letting life slip by and your family fall away from you? Are you too consumed in your own world that you have stopped spending time on what really matters? Are you feeling depressed and anxious but you doing nothing concrete about making the right choices? Maybe start by thinking, ‘What really matters?’ and ‘Am I spending time my precious time caring about it?’.
Stop
Learn to stop and enjoy the moment: be silly, laugh, cry, allow your emotions and the emotions of others. Think to yourself, ‘If tomorrow never came: did I make the most of my life? Did I make the most of what I had?’.
I heard a saying which sent shivers down my spine and stopped me in my tracks. I was in the middle of my exercise routine and I stopped and just stood there while pondering on these words:
‘The epitome of selfishness is: not caring about your health and wellness because you expect, when your body fails, for those around you, your loved ones, to look after you; clean up the mess you created, through selfishly not looking after yourself.’ This absolutely blew me away because how often do I run around life worrying about everyone else and all the while neglecting myself? Which, in turn, will maybe become the responsibility or ‘burden’ of those I love and therefore I’m not actually caring about them at all. Looking after me, actually looks after them in the long run. Maybe you should take that to heart as well. Look after yourself so that you are looking after your loved ones.
Sometimes ‘these moments’ of what matters are right in front of us, and we are too clouded by doubt, worry, anxiety, societal pressure, family drama and life’s day-to-day pressures to see them, let alone appreciate them.
Looking on!
An article by The Guardian, reveals the most common regrets of people that are critically ill:
- ‘I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.’
- ‘I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.’
- ‘I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.’
- ‘I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.’
- ‘I wish that I had let myself be happier.’
Are you living to impress others, or to enjoy yourself? Are you constantly trading your work life for personal experiences and relationships? Do you tell people how you feeling; do you even know what you are feeling? Do you stay in touch with those that matter or are you letting life get in the way? Are you happy?
Don’t like any of your answers?
If so, maybe it is time to start tackling those doubts and fears, to start shredding away those dark clouds- so that these moments can be the shining light in your everyday life!
You can choose today to do something about the way you are feeling and the way you are living your life so that you don’t have these same regrets one day.
Don’t waste another precious day consumed with worldly matters, be consumed with what actually matters!
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4 Comments
Beautiful, profound sentiments ❤
We all need to slow down and absorb life – we are being reminded by this virus how fragile our life actually is.
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