Live a rich life today. I chose this tagline for the blog because it embodies the most fundamental message I hope to convey.
We live in a culture that aims to convince us that something is missing from our lives. These forces cause us to chase after the next thing in order to be happy and have abundance. We can never quite pinpoint what that missing thing is, so we default to chasing obvious things such as more money, the big promotion, or the latest gadget.
We continually push the goal post out in the process. We think the next thing will make us happy, so we chase it. We capture that next thing, and are dissatisfied. Our dissatisfaction then causes us to chase the next thing, which we ultimately catch and become dissatisfied with.
Round and round we go in this never ending process, similar to a dog chasing its tail.
Life passes by and starts to wind down in our later years. Near the end, we are left to look back at the vast expanse of time that has been our lives and reflect on how well we did. None of us currently know exactly what we will think and feel once the time comes, but we can read about the stories of others before us to have some clues.
Chased the good life my whole life long. Look back on my life and my life gone. Where did I go wrong?
A Lifetime of Regret
Bronnie Ware spent many years in palliative care treating those suffering from serious illness such as cancer and heart failure. In other words, Bronnie Ware worked with people who were dying. During her time, Bronnie was able to hear the regrets of people in their last days which she shared in an online article that has been read millions of times.
Here is what Bronnie shared as the top 5 regrets of the dying:
- I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
- I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
- I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
- I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
- I wish I had let myself be happier.
This list provides a somber peek into how many people will look back at their lives when there is no more time to push things off into the future – when they no longer have time to chase that mysterious thing we’re all after. Many will be left with a list of regrets that stem from how they chose to use the precious time of their lives.
How to Avoid Regret
The good news is that these types of regrets can be avoided by deciding to make different choices in how we use the limited amount of time that we have. The main choice is for us to stop waiting to be happy and to start living a rich life today. To stop thinking of happiness as something far off into the future. The stop pursuing happiness.
I used to think that happiness worked was some unattainable thing that I didn’t deserve today, so I would chase many of the things listed above. Each time I would get to the next level, I would find myself in the same dissatisfied place.
Two near death experiences + one visit to rock bottom have shown me that there is a different way to go about things. That a rich life of happiness can be had today, and that it takes a lot less than we think. Here is my framework for a rich life.
A Rich Life Today
Mentally & Physically Heathy
A body that is able to do the things we want it to do. Free of disease and pain.
Reason for Living
The most important things to a person. The things that rise above life’s trivialities.
Healthy & Loving Relationships
Connection with other people is at the core of the human experience.
Broader Connectivity to a Place
Connectivity to our states, cities, and neighborhoods.
State of Being Satisfied and Happy
Living and enjoying life today.
Tranquility
The absence of disturbances in life.
Optimal Health
Optimal health tops my list for a rich life because health is the foundation for everything else. There are many things to enjoy in a lifetime, but none are fully possible without having adequate health. We are given a single body and mind to use along life’s journey, so we must tend to these with the highest level of attention and care. Plus our bodies are the only things in this world that we truly own.
Optimal health makes everything in life better. Movement feels easier and more fluid when one is strong and nimble. Our brains function better when we are rested. Our moods and energy levels are responsive when our nutrition is good. Pain is reduced when inflammation is under control. And intimacy is better when there are no physical inhibitions.
How to Achieve Optimal Health
You can instantly improve the quality of your life by improving the quality of your health. There is no single size that fits all when it comes to health because everyone faces a different set of challenges, but there are things that we all can do to ensure optimal health.
A few of the key things that can be done to improve your health today is eating a clean and balanced diet with reductions in sugar, alcohol, and saturated fats. These things sure do taste and feel good, but they come with some nasty strings attached. Also, working to achieve and maintain a healthy weight reduces risk of many common health conditions such as heart disease.
Having great health isn’t complicated either. Just doing the few things mentioned above, along with consistent physical activity are probably enough to account for 80% of optimal health. The remaining twenty percent will depend on your unique situation and should be addressed accordingly.
My twenty percent involves constant physical therapy to manage old sports injuries. I can choose to be lazy and skip the physical therapy, but then my body will decline much faster stunting my ability to do other things I love and opening the door for constant nagging pain.
Automatically practice clean eating, healthy weight maintenance, and physical activity. Then figure out what that remaining twenty percent is and lean into it as a personal project that will help you improve your
Purpose
I define purpose as my reason for living. A person’s purpose is the thing or set of things that they stake their lives on. These are the most important things to a person and these things rise above all of life’s trivialities. Nurturing our purpose will constantly enrich our lives and provide us with satisfaction while neglecting our purpose will surely lead to regret.
Some people have a well developed sense of purpose, while others must seek it out. Regardless of the route, all of us can establish a purpose. I was fortunate to stumble on my purpose in the 3rd grade when my mom brought home a weightlifting set which she found while on her cleaning service job. It was a simple set consisting of a bench, a bar, and some adjustable dumbbell – but that was all that I needed. My purpose was cemented.
I would spend countless hours at home in the mirror “working out” with my weights. I’m sure I was doing everything wrong, but it didn’t matter because I just loved what I was doing. Today is much of the same as I still spend countless hours in the gym working out for sheer love of the process.
I’m also cultivating this blog as another avenue of purpose in my life. A good sign that I’m on the right path is the fact that I’ve been committed to this idea since 2014 and that I enjoy the process of creating articles such as this one.
How to Find Your Purpose
The process of finding our purpose is easier than you may think. All that is truly necessary is a bit of self reflection and honesty to identify the thing or things which you love doing the most. Sit down with a pen and paper and begin jotting down ideas.
As you conduct this process of self reflection, be sure to identify things that are truly meaningful to you – independent of influence by your family, friends, and society. We only get one shot on this earth so we must use our time to do the things that really ignite our souls.
You may already have an idea that has laid dormant for some time. If so, just begin pursuing your idea and slowly build it into your life. The key word here is slowly since you may have already built a life that does not have much room for anything new. Take some time to shift things around to give yourself space to explore.
Some people may not be able to come up with anything on their lists. This does not mean that you lack purpose, it just means that you have to take an additional step to flesh things out. If you are unable to identify those innate things that give you purpose, then simply identify some goals that you would like to accomplish.
A goal could be anything such as wanting to run a marathon or take an international vacation. It could be wanting to go back to school. It could even be wanting to learn to bake pies. No goal is off limits. The only key is to stay true to yourself and only identify goals that are truly meaningful to you.
Pursue your goals slowly and consistently over time. You will find that some goals were just fluffy ideas that had no staying power in your life. You should quickly discard these because you’ll probably lack the motivation to keep at them and they will just distract from more important goals. You’ll eventually find something that sticks.
Word of Caution On Purpose
I want to be clear that not everything we do in life for enjoyment and fun passes the muster for our purpose. Some will read this section and think that I’m giving them permission to neglect important things in life for the sake of distractions such as binge watching Love is Blind.
You may really enjoy binge watching Love is Blind, but I’m not giving you permission to pretend that it is the most important thing in your life. Consider yourself held accountable!
A person’s purpose is the thing or set of things that they stake their lives on. These are the most important things to a person and these things rise above all of life’s trivialities. Nurturing our purpose will constantly enrich our lives and provide us with satisfaction while neglecting our purpose will surely lead to regret
The critical word here is regret.
Some things we do for fun actually distract us from our true purpose in life. If we spend all of our time binge watching Love is Blind, then our lives will surely pass us by. At some point, we will run out of time and have to look back and ask ourselves if we did the things that we truly wanted to do. Or if we wasted time sitting on the couch trying to see if Cameron would propose to Lauren.
Relationships and Love
A rich life is surrounded by healthy and loving relationships. Connection with other people is at the core of the human experience and the quality of our relationships is a powerful force that can significantly impact the quality of our lives. There are four categories that we can break our relationships into and should strive to have abundance in each one.
Romantic Relationships
A deep romantic relationship is the most important relationship that one can have. Having a relationship with a loving, caring, and supportive partner is the most important because this will likely be the closest relationship that any of us will ever have.
Amazing Romantic Relationships
We are prone to take things for granted once we have them and we often neglect our most important relationships as we chase that next thing. Many of Bronnie Ware’s patients touched on this by expressing regret over spending too much time working versus being more present with their spouses.
Consider yourself lucky if you already have an amazing romantic relationship. Take this as a moment to really show your partner how much you love them. Tell them that you love them, give them a hug, buy them flowers, or do that thing for them that you know will make them happy. Lean into the relationship, make it even stronger, and don’t take it for granted.
Those who currently have a rocky relationship should try to fix things. Take inventory of what is not going well, talk things out with your partner, seek outside help if necessary, and do the work. Most relationships fail because people don’t do the work necessary to improve. Don’t give up if there is even a glimmer of hope because the grass is not always greener.
I’m currently single, so my single people reading this are well represented. My message for those in this boat would be to remain optimistic and positive. There is a statistical certainty that you will find someone in time, so be patient. Until that person comes, focus on building the best version of yourself possible.
This can be done a number of ways, but should start with reflection and radical self-honesty to identify the areas requiring most growth. Once you know where you can improve, then you must do the work to grow yourself and develop your relational skills. Most of the changes required are likely internal rather than external.
My extreme level of independence can make me a very ‘my way or the highway’ type of person. This just won’t work in a healthy relationship, so I’m working on improving my negotiation skills. I’m also pretty assertive and I don’t tend to shy away from conflict which means that I’m always down for a good argument. Again, not good so I’m working on my conflict resolution skills.
Friendships
A deep bond between real friends is a very close second to romantic relationships. Friendships exist in varying levels, but the closest and deepest ones are scientifically proven to boost our happiness. The five ingredients of an amazing friendship is genuineness, pleasure, relatability, openness, and reciprocity. Let’s touch on each.
Genuineness
Genuineness between friends is highly desirable because of the importance of trust in the relationship. An environment of genuineness and authenticity paves the way for trust. This sounds simple, but many people are burdened by fake friendships mired in ulterior motives and role playing. Life is too short for us to constantly have to look over our shoulders.
Pleasure
Friendships are wonderful because they skew heavily toward pleasure over obligation. Our romantic and familial relationships likely come with a degree of responsibility, but friends exist mostly for the enjoyment of everyone involved. A friendship that becomes too much of an obligation is known as toxic and is not desirable.
Relatability
People relate when they have things in common. Since friends derive pleasure in the relationship, there must be something that the friends can bond over. These commonalities can be obvious or less so, but it would be difficult for friends to stay close if they share nothing in common. As the old saying goes, birds of a feather flock together.
Openness
Openness between friends is composed of vulnerability, transparency, and acceptance. Friendships are so special because people can come into the relationship and show their true selves without concern of judgment or rejection. Not everyone vibes as friends, and that is a beautiful thing.
Reciprocity
Reciprocity is mutual sharing in friendships. Friendships, like all relationships, are composed of both give and take from the involved parties. Reciprocity is working well when both sides come to the relationship to get what they need while also being intentional about giving back an equal amount.
An imbalanced relationship is lackluster at best. I had a former friend who was notorious for spending 30 – 45 minutes talking without pause about his life, only to abruptly end the call after about 5 mins of the other person talking. Such an imbalance in communication puts a strain on the relationship and makes one avoid interactions. Needless to say, this friendship eventually ended as I matured and refined what real friendship looks like to me.
How Create Amazing Friendships
Time and effort are the biggest requirements to establishing strong friendships. Both sides have to be willing to spend the time with each other to develop the relationship. Bonding takes time, so a commitment to the process is necessary.
I spend so much time tinkering with my personal projects that it sometimes feels like a major sacrifice to step away to hang out with friends. But no friendship can thrive without my fair share of effort, so I have to shift my priorities from time to time. Plus, balance is good.
The next thing is probably a no-brainer, but it’s important to connect with people that you like, respect, and have things in common with. People who already partake in your interests or social groups could be a great place to start.
Family Relationships
Family is the backbone of life. Having a connected family is living having a life sized floatation device full of love and warmth. They may not be there on a day-to-day basis, but they are always there when you need them most and they usually love you most unconditionally.
Some will attempt to diminish the importance of family, but this is likely because they have never had strong family relationships. Those who have solid family relationships can attest to the life enrichment that these relationships create.
How to Have Stronger Family Relationships
There is a form of unconditional love between family members in all but the most extreme circumstances. I think everyone should at least attempt to be close to their parents and siblings to the maximum extent possible. This does not mean that each individual relationship will be the same from person to person, but the family unit should be strong as a whole.
Those who are estranged from their families should consider repairing things if possible. Sometimes it just takes one individual to be the bigger person or catalyst to begin mending fences. Things may not improve over night, but can grow better with time. As with most things, desire and initiative is all that is required.
My family has gone through more than most and we have all had our own unique challenges. We are far from perfect, but we’ve managed to find harmony through it all.
Community
Community is another element that a person should build into their lives. Having a place of broader connectivity beyond the four walls of our home can be an enriching experience. Feeling connected to our states, cities, and neighborhoods gives us an increased sense of wellbeing, belonging, and security.
We should not take these things for granted but many of us do. We spend much of our mental energy focusing on things happening at a national or international level while neglecting to realize that there are more immediate opportunities happening right in front of us.
How to Build Community
I’ve lived in 8 different cities, 13 distinct homes or apartments, and have moved 18 times. I’ve also never renewed a lease as a renter because something always comes up which prompts another move. For those counting, the average length per stay is only 10 months.
This transitory lifestyle makes integrating with a community quite difficult and I’ve identified improvement in this area as a major priority in my rich life journey. The first important step would be for me to find a place that I love and would want to settle down in for an extended period of time.
One benefit of living in many places is that I have been able to test out several regions and city types to better refine what I look for in a place. I’ve also been able to compare each city against others to feel more confident in picking a place without having the strong sense of wanderlust. My current city seems to have a nice mix of what I’m looking for and I can see myself staying here for a while.
The next step e is to begin immersing in the community. Some of the things that I plan on doing are learning more about the area’s history, exploring the various neighborhoods, and familiarizing myself with the government structure. I’ll eventually join some local groups to begin to develop relationships with others based on shared interests.
The final step is to become an active participant in shaping the community. Rather than focusing on things at the national level, I plan to turn my attention to things happening locally and voting accordingly. I also plan to join community groups aimed at influencing how things get done. To top things off, I will give back to the community in various ways such as sharing my time and talents for other people to benefit from.
Contentment
If I could give Nobel Peace Prizes, I would have given one to golf legend Walter Hagen. Hagen ranks third behind Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods for most Majors’ wins. He is also given credit for bringing golf to mainstream prominence and is known as the “father of professional golf”.
These are certainly impressive accolades, but they aren’t quite Nobel Prize worthy. The real legend of Walter Hagen stems from what he wrote in his autobiography. The line in question reads:
Don’t hurry. Don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.
This line would later be spun into the popular phrase stop and smell the roses.
Contentment is a state of being satisfied and happy. No matter how strong the other aspects from this list are, none can be enjoyed unless we learn to be satisfied with what we have. As I mentioned to start, many people live in a constant state of “only if” and fail to recognize how wonderful the here and now really is.
The fifth item from Bronnie Ware’s list is I wish that I had let myself be happier. This quote alludes to the tendency many of us have to feel that something is missing from our lives that is preventing us from being happy in the present. We spend so much time ruminating over the past and stressing about the future that we forget about the gift of the present moment.
The best choice for a good life is to live more in the present and enjoy life as it is today because that is really the only option we have. We are quite literally right where we are at this very moment, and only our minds can be somewhere else – so we must wrangle those to truly stop to smell the roses.
Contentment is not Complacency
Contentment is not the same thing as complacency. Complacency is a low and shortsighted form of satisfaction where one blinds themselves into thinking that everything in their life is all good when in reality nothing about life is ever just all good. Life is full of problems, issues, challenges, and desires.
A complacent person ignores these realities and bops along never making progress. The difference is that a content person faces the problems of life, and pursues their desires while also being satisfied with the current place they are at. A content person enjoys each step of the progressive journey called life while a complacent person fails to ever move forward because of their shortsighted view of satisfaction.
We’ve all seen that 45 year old man who happily lives in his moms basement playing video games all day.
How to Be More Content With Your Life
The problem for most people is that they don’t allow themselves to ever be satisfied with where they are as they move forward, so they get stuck chasing that mysterious future thing.
After many years of being dissatisfied in life, I can say that I’ve grown to find contentment. I never specifically set out to reach this state, but landed here as a result of my efforts to improve my life. I’ve also studied topics on happiness and have learned from those much wiser than me.
The first step toward contentment is to set your life in order. It’s difficult to be satisfied with your life if many aspects of it are broken or not meeting your expectations. Working to improve things will literally make you happier, but this process goes beyond just base level improvements.
What really happens when you take control of your life is you begin to appreciate that you are where you are based on your own efforts – that you are in control. It’s impossible to be happy when you feel that you have no control over the things that happen to you. Setting your life in order improves things in real time and also bolsters the confidence you have in your ability to influence things.
After you do the work to fix what’s broken, you will experience satisfaction. At this point, special care must be taken to appreciate where you are in life. It’s really good to reflect on and appreciate your progress because our instincts will want us to look forward toward the next set of problems to tackle. Stop and smell the roses – over and over.
Your goal should be to hold your satisfaction at a constant level as best as possible. Do not extend out the goal post for your happiness. Accept that problems will happen and new desires will pop up. But also recognize that problems and desires have nothing to do with your satisfaction with the present – unless you let them.
Peace
Peace relates to a state of tranquility. More specifically peace is the absence of disturbance like a metaphorical lake free of any ripples.
We can imagine a person who has established a life they are proud of and have been careful to not allow dissatisfaction to creep in over the things they don’t have. This person would be considered happy and content, but they could still have a disrupted level of peace if their next door neighbors are a frat house known for throwing wild parties until 4 a.m. on week nights.
How to Achieve Peace
Achieving peace involves a simple process. Simple does not always mean easy for people to actually do , but the process is simple nonetheless. The first step is identifying the source of disturbance, and the second step is to eliminate the disturbance to restore tranquility.
The rowdy neighbor mentioned above could be fixed by asking them to hold it down, working with their governing body to stop the issue, or maybe even calling the cops. If all else fails, you could move.
Protect Your Peace at All Cost
We spend an outlandish amount of time being upset by the world. Things that happen on the news, on social media, and between our friends and family constantly disrupt our peace. We are all a bit gluttonous for punishment, because the truth is that we give these disruptions permission to exist in the first place.
I’ve chosen to protect my peace by simply caring a lot less about what’s going on around me and focusing on my life. Rather than scrolling the new feed or social media timeline, I’m usually heads down doing other things such as writing ridiculously long articles. If something is bothering me, I try to stamp it out or move away from it as quickly as possible. Don’t allow things to penetrate your peace bubble and eliminate the things that do!
What About Money
No one can argue against the fact that having boat loads of money makes you rich and that being rich is a highly attractive place to be. Being rich enables one to create a life of luxury and opens up doors to rare opportunities. Being rich leads to status, respect, and admiration. Having tons of money likely leads to increased happiness.
The trouble for most people is that they will never truly be financially rich. Sure, we can dream and hope for some dumb luck to happen to happen that will turn us into the next Jeff Bezos – but the reality is that most people will never make it to that level. And this is a perfectly okay thing to accept.
I’m willing to bet that there are no rich people reading this article because they are off doing rich people things. That just leaves us normal people to read blog posts like this one so that we can find strategies to maximize our earnings and happiness in life.
A Rich Life Today
The good news is that there is a difference between being rich and living a rich life. Being rich simply means that a person has a lot of money. Living a rich life involves the things mentioned throughout this post, and other things that provide you with the most value.
The key for everyone at all financial levels is focus on building an abundant life of great health, a clear purpose, and strong relationships – all bolstered by an overwhelming sense of peace and contentment. Once you have these in place, then you throw money on as the little cherry on top. You just want to avoid only having the cherry because a life lacking these other elements is blah no matter how you slice it.
Need Proof?
I recently stumbled upon this 3 minute clip of football legend Michael Vick speaking about his regret. Vick had 13 million dollars along with everything else he needed to live a rich life – yet he says that he was still unhappy and searching for that mysterious missing thing that would make him happy. Vick himself says that he ‘didn’t have peace’. He should have stopped and smelled the roses!
12 Responses
This article is the truth! There is so much related to a rich (happy) life that has nothing to do with money. The main things that make me feel rich are my relationships with friends and family. I am really starting to get invested in my health and loving the way being healthier feels. The value is definitely in quality of life.
Having quality relationships and great health are key! Life offers so much more than chasing money and being rich, but our culture wants us to lose focus on this. Keep an eye out for ways to build and live your version of a rich life!
Wow, there are many areas to the rich life that in a way I neglect because of focus on other areas. Ultimately it’s all about balance and what works for each person. I have caught myself lacking within optimal health in these past few months. Currently I am looking to build back up my physical habits that make me feel good and make me happy, quite frankly I miss being active and playing sports. Eating cleaner is my next step.
However one thing that has flourished this past year for me is relationships, I’ve always had great friends, but having that romantic partner is a great feeling. Moving to a new city has also shown me how amazing my friends and family are, I feel like I haven’t missed a beat (and although missing a beat is okay, we’re all busy) and can always find comfort speaking to these people.
Man oh man, so I love having romantic love. Consider yourself luck. Perhaps an engagement is coming soon?
It’s all about balance, and this post really just points out ways for us not to lose sight of things and to continue to work to keep everything at an optimal level. Life is all about highs and lows, but you seem to know this and have a great approach. Keep it up sir!
Since you mentioned buying weight training shoes in your earlier post. Have you ever thought of doing more fitness videos or basic tidbits for your followers? I think you’d be great at it.
Ready my mind! Stay tuned in the next week or so 🙂
I hit a breaking point this year with purpose and money. out the gates from university, the societal pressure of ‘what are you going to do’ had me honing in on my ‘purpose’ thinking it was solely to make money. Compile this with generational values i grew up watching, and I was 24/7 focused on making money and providing for those around me. This brought me drive, ambition, and fire. However, when the lofty yearly goal i set in monetary value was hit, I felt like a rocketship in space, running out of gas. No where else to go, but a crash landing back to earth (reality) This crash landing hurt! A lot of mistakes i made, chasing greed and endless $ amounts, left me feeling depressed, sad, isolated, and overall very negative on myself …. as you mentioned in your article, this pain brought my conscious towards healing, and the true purposes in life … peace, spirit, family, love. I am looking forward to following yours, and breaking brokes journey.
Secondly, in this day and age on the internet, to see someone giving so much information on something they’re passionate about is a breath of fresh air. Long form written, information dense content is some of the hardest to produce, so first of all id like to just applaud you for trying and doing something out of the box and clearly producing content on what you’re PASSIONATE about.
I say this, to mention … since you already have the long-form content, i feel like you can break it down into bite-size, mobile-video chunks and distribute on tiktok / instagram to garner some more eyeballs to your work. For instance, this one article, you could break down into probably 5-10 pieces of short tiktok content. Not to mention text-first image content for insta, etc etc. Getting that brand growing. I am by no-means an expert, but i have been working with branding and social media for the past few years now to support myself. Id love to provide any help i may be, if you have any specific questions or chats about these topics. Please just message me on FB or Email
Still remember you wooping me in Halo
cheers, looking forward to your next piece.
Thanks so much for sharing you story. You’ve nailed it with the problem on chasing money for the sake just chasing – there is no end and no amount can fill the holes you have on the inside or in your life. Very good stuff.
And spot on with the passion aspect. I’m you notice and appreciate your encouragement.
Definitely going to connect with you directly for help with content strategies. I’m a bit long in the tooth and my generation didn’t have the faster more consumable media, so I struggle. Be in touch!
Interesting that the strongest regrets are typically regrets of inaction. We are often taught at a young age that we will regret actions that we take in haste, however, psychologists that study this find different results (undergrad psychology major here lol). I always felt risk averse in my financial life so I hope that I do not regret risks not taken later in life.
What really resonated with me in this post was related to maintaining relationships and friendships. Oftentimes the things that will make us most happy/content (and I have experienced this) are right in front of us despite the fact that we think chasing the carrot is going to fill that void.
I’ve always felt the most regret from inaction myself! Whether it be not speaking to the cute girl, or not moving to a city that I’ve always dreamed about. I think we can handle failure of trying much better than failure from not trying, and never knowing the result.
This is why I think it’s so valuable to face our problems head on. Even if the worst outcome happens, we can be at peace with the results
I’ve definitely let some relationships slip in the past and am becoming wiser to not let this continue to happen. As you said, chasing the carrot won’t ever fill the void completely!
This was a great read/ listen and insightful!
It really resonated with me when you mentioned the constant pursuit of happiness because I myself was in this space of chasing. Sometimes we loose sight of what we currently have and we don’t appreciate it, therefore causing us to not live in the present moment. When we start to live life in abundance and gratitude, it will naturally conspire what you are trying to achieve.
Absolutely! I think it may be a function of our culture, but are taught to be in constant pursuit of the next thing. I notice that this attitude is far less prevalent in other places such as Europe, Asia, and the tropics. The U.S. ranks 46th in life expectancy while boasting top tier medical resources and abundant opportunity. I wonder if all of the chasing causes us to be more stressed than citizens of other countries.