I’ve given it a ton of thought lately, this whole little dream that we are all so busily chasing… with no real end in sight. We’ve all done it, we see someone who is a celebrity in our line of work and we so confidently tell ourselves that they, well, they have really made it. What the heck is this “it” and why are we so aggressively seeking to find it. (I mean, let’s be honest though, Beyonce has seriously made it… she must know a secret the rest of us don’t know.) I’ve made lists of things that I thought would tell me when I had somehow arrived to this place that I wanted and needed to be, but as each piece was crossed off of the puzzle I was left adding to the list… one that was never ending. Where the heck is this “it” and how will we know when we have arrived? Are yoga pants appropriate dress to wear when we make it? I sure hope so.
I think about how when I started I told myself that the day I got published in a magazine, I would know I have made it. Well, that day came and went, I cried the first time I saw my images in a magazine and threw myself a party (guest list of one.) Then I told myself that when I could leave my corporate job and do this gig full time I would have made it, once again, it came and went and yet I was still chasing, never content. The truth of the matter is, our society likes us to dangle this invisible gold carrot in front of our noses so that we never stop chasing, so that we never feel content.
But you know what? I think that sucks the life out us, it removes the joy from accomplishments (even if your accomplishment of the day is showering… I’m not speaking from experience here.) Our generation is so “busy,” cramming as much as they can into every minute of the day – what are we all chasing? Why are we missing life for this chase? Chasing accomplishments is a slippery slope and if you are a good runner… even worse, because you will continue to push the boundaries, always seeking the next big thing! Just as you can not find happiness in material things, you also can not wait for happiness (something you might think lies in reaching something – like that delicious golden carrot in front of you.)
I want to change this whole mentality of the chase, I want to celebrate the fact that life is beautiful and I am happy and to me, that means I have made it in this crazy world we live in. I don’t want to always be chasing, to be working with reckless abandon to an invisible line in the sand that we might never reach. Sure plans and goals are beautiful things but so is just being genuinely happy. So what if I never lose that last five pounds (okay, ten) and who cares if I never speak at a national conference or win a big award, those are just things that we think we must do in order to find happiness, but happiness is not an end result, it is a state of mind. So today I am choosing to chase my dreams in yoga pants with a smile on my face and joy in my heart – because I am sick of chasing this “it” thing that I doubt I will ever find.
So where do I want to be in five years? I want to be happy.
Grab a beverage and croissant, let’s hang out awhile longer:
