Stay in the Right Lane: Let Yourself Slow Down and Enjoy Life

I just wrapped up my 30-Day Journal Challenge, some things I reflected on this past month...

"I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well." ~Diane Ackerman

It truly is astonishing how fast time goes. And don't we often try to make it go even faster?

Everyone seems to want everything yesterday.

We work in jobs we have very little control over. Add that to our daily responsibilities as parents, spouses, partners, friends, children to aging parents, and—not to be forgotten—ourselves. It's a lot.

Maybe you are like me. When I was younger, I too often:

• wanted to fast-forward to a new day, a new week, or a new season of life
• wished time away
• focused on that vacation that was months away
• had my eye on that next goal
• sought to get through tough circumstances I was facing, or
• desired to be where someone else was in life

What did it cost me? Memories and opportunities. I was always thinking ahead. I was not in the moment.

I missed opportunities to learn and grow because I was always focused on that next thing instead of learning what could help me in that next thing.

I missed all the beauty this earth has to offer because I was driving too fast.

It cost me time. I wished away something I can never get back. It cost me the fun of simply living life, my life.

Countless people feel this way and end up disassociating or self-medicating in order to endure life rather than living it. I too was guilty of this when my tennis career came to an end due to a diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis. Then losing my mother, father, and brother, I just worked an insane amount of hours and kept running to avoid sitting in the moment and dealing with grief.

Unfortunately, wishing you were somewhere in the future and numbing out until you get there will rob you of the present moment… and life is only ever made up of present moments.

So how do you stop wishing your life away like this? It has taken me forty-five years on earth to figure out how to make every moment count. And, if I'm honest, it's something I must work on every day.

"Don't focus on making each moment perfect, focus on the perfection each moment provides, be it a good one, or not so-good one." ~Jenna Kutcher

Just make it count. Be in it. Live it.

I am going to continue to live in the right lane, enjoy every moment, create and experience new moments, and focus on the journey itself, not the destination.

"The most dangerous risk of all...is the risk of spending your life not doing what you want, on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later." ~Randy Komisar

So how do you do that? It isn't always easy.

Have good self-awareness (know yourself and trust yourself). Be intentional. Make time for the people and things that matter. Make time to think about what you really want in life.

And slow yourself down.

How To Stop Wishing Your Life Away: 9 Tips That Actually Work!

1. Recognize that all we have is right here, right now. 

2. Accept discomfort and become comfortable with it.

3. Remember that every situation is temporary: this too shall pass.

4. Stop assuming that life will be better when circumstances have changed.

5. Practice sincere gratitude.

6. Make a list of all the things you enjoy doing, and focus on them.

7. Avoid comparing your life to others.

8. Stop doing things that you hate.

9. Take action to make real change happen.

This Thanksgiving, Express gratitude to those around you. You will have to think about what you have before you can express gratitude for it. 

And to leave you with my favorite quote of all time;

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, “Wow what a ride!” ~Hunter S. Thompson

I love you all,

Cindy Ross xoxo