“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” – Lao Tzu.

What a shitty day!

I convey my thoughts now following what can only be described as a shit day in which things have not gone the way they were supposed to. I received a bunch of bad news, which ultimately will lead to big changes in my life in the near future.

I contemplated these thoughts for a while, wondering why things were not going the way I wanted them to and that was when it ‘hit’ me – things do not happen how you want them to, they just happen.

I then recollected my experience and learnings over the past few years and reminded myself that in the context of life, what does it really matter.

Expectation.

The brilliance of the human mind has evolved to a condition that has given us the ability to imagine futuristic circumstances and events. We then cultivate emotions and feelings in relation to such scenarios before they even become reality; if they ever do at all.

The ability to do this means that the human brain tends to create an expectation of what will come to fruition in our lives based on what we as individuals would like to happen. Our tendency to create projections into the future are what expose us to the feelings of worry and desire. The problem with this is that the chances of something happening exactly how we want and when we want is extremely unlikely.

There are seven billion people on this planet connected to an infinite amount of natural forces that we have absolutely no control over; the only thing we can control is ourselves. 

Acceptance.

There is not a single one of us on this planet that has the ability to change things that have happened in the past. We can spend as much time as we want thinking about it, wondering what might have been had something happened a different way – it still can’t be changed!

We must not live in our past it can be so mentally destructive. We can use our life experience to learn and empower ourselves to create a better version of us in the present moment.

Accept that you are on a path to your dream destination. The journey may not always go as planned but enjoy it as best you can because you will always end up where you want to go.

“Make life a wonderful adventure.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist.

Changes.

The only thing we can ever be certain of in our lives is_ change. No matter what we do, nothing will ever stay the same, we are not static in this world. Even nature, the greatest force there is, is constantly changes – it just seems to happen.

A lot of things we can’t control, but tough moments will pass, and everything will come good eventually if we just keep going.

We are responsible as individuals for making the changes that we want to see in our lives. We cannot control everything, but if we can impact our future then it is our greatest calling to do so.

Meaning.

No event, no circumstance, no situation in our lives ‘has’ meaning; we choose the meanings that these events have based on our imagination of how things should be. Our life will always come down to what our thoughts make of it, so spend some time seeing the best of things.

Sometimes it will be hard and challenging to understand the meaning and purpose of some events, this is simply part of life, so just do the best you can.

But, how do we decide the meaning we give to things?

A series of ‘fortunate’ events.

The reality is things are going to happen in our lives that are just not ideal and ultimately, sometimes, things just suck! Or at least that’s what we think at the time…

Dale Carnegie said, “The blackest moments we live through can only last a little time – and then comes the future.”

Tony Robbins said, “Everything in life happens for a reason and purpose, and it serves us.”

What I have come to realise is that we can never truly evaluate or value the impact of something at the time. We may never know the effect it has on our life for years to come, but when we reflect on our life as a timeline, we see how it came together in the end. That job we didn’t get; that relationship that failed; the game we lost; the decision that we made; it is more often than not when we look back on our lives we realise how meaningless they were, albeit at the time it may have seemed like the ‘end of the world’.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the multiplex of the mind and ‘daily’ compartments that we fail to look at the bigger picture of our life, our journey and our destiny. We need to take a moment to step outside of ourselves and then we might just notice that it was a series of fortunate events strung together that created our present moment.

The point is that none of us really know what tomorrow will bring for us, but no matter what – live for your dreams and just have the belief that you are on the right path even if it does not seem like it right now.

Live in the present and create your future. Choose your own meaning for the events of your life and love the path that You chose.