Why you need to cherish every moment of your life
Ok, I did it again. After a stressful day at work, I turned on the podcasts and I got lost in the stories/lessons. The podcast that stood out to me today was called Self Expression – Being You by MorningCoach. First of all, I envy JB, who is the author of MorningCoach. He is literally living my life’s dreams. I want to travel the world while providing others with inspiration and positivity. This is what he is currently doing. But that is not what captured my undivided attention today. What really got me thinking about my life was when he said to cherish every moment of your life.
JB is currently living in Columbia with his wife. In the podcast, he is talking about daily life in Columbia and how it seems like there is a holiday or celebration every week. With the World Cup going on right now, he says that the atmosphere is even more lively. But with this, JB also talks about how unorganized Columbia is. The streets are different, the cities are different, and the services are not perfect. Despite the differences, Colombians are apparently living life the right way. They do not focus on materialistic things to be happy. Instead, they see life for the true celebration that it is and they cherish every moment of it. They celebrate life and they party like there is no tomorrow, because truthfully, none of us do know if there will be a tomorrow.
Today, this podcast was exactly what I needed today. All day I was feeling stressed and my emotions were turned off. Have you heard the analogy of “running like a chicken with it’s head cut off?” Well, that was me today. I needed to be told to breathe, relax, and cherish every moment of my life. I needed to be told to slow down, see the beauty in the world, and start loving myself a little more. That’s exactly what I did. I put my headphones in and just reflected.
When JB started to talk about cherishing life, do you want to know what I thought about? What came to my mind was the fact that I had SIX donuts yesterday. I am not joking… About that being the thought that came to my mind, or about the fact that I ate six donuts. I will say it loud and proud because I cherished every moment of it. Let me tell you why I cherished this moment so much.
For me, this was meaningful because it meant that I was making progress in my life. A few months ago, there is no chance that I would have ate one donut because I was scared of the “fat”. Yesterday, I went over to my parents house not knowing that they were making homemade donuts. Instead of coming up with an excuse and turning down the opportunity, I lived in the moment. I had some donuts, and cherished the time spent with my family. Something just clicked in my head. I didn’t think about what I was eating, I just enjoyed. I enjoyed the taste, I enjoyed the time with my family, and now, I can enjoy the memories that we made.
That is what life is truly all about. Life is celebrating each day because you get to be apart of it. Often times, we are in such a rush that we forget to see the true beauty in the world. We are rushing to and from work, or back in forth from sports practice. We forget to breathe, we forget to open our eyes wide, and we forget to cherish the moments that we are living. Don’t tell yourself that you will start cherishing moments when you are older, start now. Quite frankly, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Tomorrow may bring greater challenges, or tomorrow may never come. We just don’t know.
No matter what anybody says about you or your life, learn to love it and learn to cherish your life. Here I am, living proof that you can do anything that you set your mind to. I had more donuts yesterday than I had in the last five years combined. If you think I am kidding, well, just know I am not. To me, I did it by letting go of all of my stress and just being present. I saw the beauty in spending time with my family, I saw the beauty in the celebration of daily life, and I saw the beauty in myself. From now on, nobody is going to tell me how to live my life. I am going to live my life the way I want to live it, and I am going to cherish every waking moment of it.
Michael Bonnell
7/3/2018
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Oh child, those weren’t just plain old donuts, those were Beignets from Cafe du monde! Big difference, kiddo! And I think you had eight – just sayin’
They were too good.