Of Course You Should Be Trying To Live Your Life To The Fullest
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Sep 25, 2022
Some years ago I came across a blog post recommended by someone I used to be connected to on social media. The title of the post was 5 Reasons Why Living Your Life to The Fullest is Wrong Advice.
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In the article, the writer said that people have been given incorrect advice and he lists 5 reasons why he believes it's bad advice. He also gives 3 ways people should think about living that he believes are better.
What's funny is that I don't disagree with his 5 reasons. What I disagree with is the conclusion he came to based on those reasons. I hope you check out his article for yourself to see those 5 reasonings. I'm going to go a different route, and tell you 5 reasons why you should be trying to live your life to the fullest.
1. We all deserve to be happy.
What I've found is that people who don't believe they're getting everything out of life that they want aren't necessarily very happy. The thing is, everyone doesn't feel the need to get more out of life than they have and that's fine; in their own way they might already be living their life to the fullest.
2. Just because you can't always define it doesn't mean you can't find it.
Mom used to enjoy watching TV and her DVDs; that made her imminently happy. She had traveled all over the country and spend time in another country, and eventually she just wanted to relax and enjoy a much quieter life. When I moved her to live with me, I kept her entertained by putting on movies and TV shows she loved.
Some people are happy helping others; some are happy making money. You might not know how to get there, and you might not be able to quantify it; sometimes you just happen upon it, and that's not a bad thing. I've been working on this my entire life; maybe one day I'll get there, even without being able to decide what it'll be like if and when it happens.
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3. There's no real thing called "comfortable".
Often when the subject comes to money, people say "I want to make enough money to be comfortable." My response is usually asking the question "what is comfortable?" The response I get back is usually "enough money to always be able to pay my bills."
Let's be truthful; no one wants only that. The ability to pay bills means you don't want anything else in life. Most people could pay their bills if they didn't buy conveniences, certain types of clothes, vehicles, go out for entertainment, etc. Minimum wage at 40 hours a week can possibly pay for a place to pay, some food, and the bills of necessity, as long as one doesn't want anything else out of life; is that all anyone really wants?
Living one's life to the fullest means you get to have some fun. Even the least bit of fun can make some people uproariously happy. For the rest of us, we tend to want more; maybe not excessively more but more nonetheless. You can't get there if you're not trying to live life to the fullest you can, even if, adding what I said earlier, you're not sure what that is yet.
4. No one wants to live a life with lots of regrets.
Here's a truth very few people know about me. When I was 22 years old I really wanted to be a songwriter. I'd record my songs and send them all over the place. I once placed a song in the top 600 out of 25,000 songs, and I was a member of ASCAP for 3 years.
This one time someone wrote back and asked if I'd like to be a part of a jazz singing group like Manhattan Transfer. If I did I had to be in New Jersey in 4 days at a certain address. I wasn't sure what they heard in my voice but I agonized over it for about a day. My dad said if I wanted to go he'd fund it for me. In the end I decided not to because it wasn't a type of music I was really familiar with.
Yet, when it comes down to reality, I turned it down because I didn't see myself as any type of singer at the time; I wanted to write songs and be thought of as brilliant that way. Who knows what might have happened, how my life would have been different, especially since years later I started singing as weddings.
That's one of few regrets I have in my life. I was locked into a specific way of thinking and couldn't see any deviation from my beliefs. If I'd known about the concept of trying to live my life to the fullest, even if it hadn't worked out the adventure would have been amazing and led to an even better story to tell. What have you given up on that might have been a great opportunity?
5. Disappointments; I've known a few. So what?
Just because everything doesn't always go smoothly when you're trying to live your life to the fullest doesn't mean you shouldn't try.
Back in 2001 I decided to take a shot at being self employed. It's been scary, and there have been tough times here and there. But there have also been some wonderful times.
If I thought I'd traveled when my family was moving around as a kid I had no idea what travel meant. In the past 21 years I've been to cities and states I'd have never thought I would ever see, and been in cities I've always wanted to see, cities I've never heard of, and of course a few places I wish I'd never been. lol
I made more money in the first 5 years than I'd made in the previous 20 years combined, and the 16 years after that. I've given more money to charities and been able to give in other ways. I've helped plenty of people and entities with their issues, hopefully leaving all of them at least a little bit better than when I arrived. And I was able to move Mom in when she needed it and stay with her during her last years on Earth.
I can't say it's been perfect, but it's sometimes been fun and I've learned a lot. I also can't say that I've lived my life to the fullest, mainly because I still haven't defined what that means for me. I'm at a place in my life where I wish I had enough money to never have to work again, could eat out at any restaurant I wanted to without worrying about paying for more important things, and never having to leave the house unless I wanted to. There are people doing it, but I'm not sure that would be living life to the fullest.
I won't be jumping out of airplanes or climbing any mountains; I'm not quite that extreme. Based on the life I want, the only thing I could want more is more of the same; maybe that's my version of living life to the fullest.
How many people can say you're living like that? Are you ready to try to live your life to the fullest if you're not presently there?