Tag Archives: Time

Link Outside the Box

How Are You Pursuing Your Happiness?

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Some people believe that if we lived in a perfect world we would get everything we asked for. Many people want money, fame, a perfect job, and the list goes on. These same people will probably tell you their one major goal in life is to be happy. While this is a great aspiration to have, I’ve come to realize that many are going about their pursuit of happiness the entirely wrong way or for the entirely wrong reasons. Nowadays, we believe that happiness is associated with tangible “things”, like a fast car, the newest version of the iPhone (that doesn’t look all too different than the last…), or maybe that new pair of shoes that just seems to continuously pop up on your Instagram feed. As humans, we crave experience by our very nature, not “stuff”. And as a marketing major, I’ve learned a lot about consumer behavior. Something so intriguing to me is that marketers are taught to create an experience that can truly connect with people on an emotional level. If you look at Nike, for example, they sell shoes, a commodity, for crying out loud. If their advertisements told you they sold a comfortable shoe in a variety of styles, you would probably not be all that interested. Instead, Nike tells you why and how this product can change your life, and you suddenly feel drawn to the shoe. Because of their superior marketing strategies, when you think of Nike you believe that you can become the athlete you’ve always dreamt of being. 

Anyways, where am I going with all of this you ask? I believe that our generation is striving for happiness, but they are taking the wrong routes to get there. If you ask me, we all need to work on understanding what activities and people make us feel truly alive. Whether this is discovered through meditation, journaling, or whatever it may be, that is up to you, but the moral of the story is that happiness will only lie in bettering oneself, one day at a time. 

Ask yourself…

  • What am I devoting my time to? 
  • Do I have enough room in my schedule for me-time?
  • How do my hobbies and my peers make me feel? 
  • Are some of my time-commitments a waste of my energy?
  • Am I in an environment that will allow me to reach my goals and aspirations?

If you think you are wasting your ever-so-valuable time, it may be a good idea to reevaluate your current situation.

It is so important to understand that you are not being selfish when you make the decision to stop allocating your energy to things that don’t bring you satisfaction anymore. Don’t ever believe that just because your life is taking you down one path, that this is the path you are meant to stay on forever. 

There are very few things in life that follow a clear, black and white, linear pattern. When it comes to things like healing or learning, there will be many challenges that arise out of the blue. Going back to the point I made earlier, many people believe that an ideal world would present everything you ask for on a silver platter. But I disagree. I honestly think that the journey you take is so much more important than the destination. We all face struggles of some sort, but if you think back to situations where you were challenged in some way I’m sure you can think of a number of lessons you got out of the experience. The bumps in the road are what build our character and can actually show us so much about ourselves. For example, sometimes it can take people years to finally realize they are on a career path that they are just not interested in anymore. And that is okay. It’s never too late to make a change in your life, no matter how large, if it will be beneficial for your mental health and wellbeing.

The key to feeling totally fulfilled, in my opinion, is to be honest with yourself when it comes to what you are passionate about, and then figure out a plan to get there. Stop going after “stuff” that will only bring short-lived bliss, and stop wasting your precious energy on situations that don’t make you feel totally and utterly fulfilled.  Continue to pursue experiences that bring you purpose. You know that rush you get from that Nike ad that makes you feel like you could run a marathon by simply Just Do(ing) It? Chase that feeling and implement it into your everyday life, and I promise you, you’ll be happy. 

 

Higher Thoughts, The Human Alexa

the time between the end and the real world

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You ever think about how, one day, years ago, you and your friends went out and had the last day of your official childhood, but no one actually knew it at the time?

Can you think back and guess which day you think that was for you?

It’s like suddenly, you wake up and surprise, you’re an adult.  The refrigerator doesn’t magically fill itself with food, and you may even need to start ironing your own clothes.

I think about the idea of past, and future lives.  How there are those that believe we will come back one day to start a new life, as a human, or an animal, or an alien of some sort.  Or that in our current lives, we are the reincarnation of someone from history, and we were them, and now are living our next life (maybe those are the voices we hear in our heads? or the people we see in dreams we don’t recognize?)

And how now we have the expression “living my best life” and I wonder if we can really say that with confidence.

I think if we were to live again, it would be like waking up after childhood.  I imagine waking up one day as a teenager and just moving along with life, “ready” to be an adult, not really thinking about what has come before then.

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Photo by Andrey Grushnikov on Pexels.com

Biologically, the majority of people can remember events as far back as when they were just 3 years old, but those memories only come in spurts of very memorable, single instances.  Our long-term memory just does not have the capacity for anything further back plus everything else we have experienced.  So I suppose it makes sense that we don’t really remember our past lives, if we had any.

As a result, I’m calling this current year of my life “the time between the end and the real world,” because I am trying to savor the last bits of what I think could be my childhood, despite being considered a young adult by everyone around me.  Because if I really won’t remember any of this in my next life, I should really just live it up now.

But maybe, just maybe, there can be a bit of an overlap.  Where my childhood hasn’t ended yet, but I start up my adult responsibilities anyway.  Because is it really a requirement to grow up?

Where I start to contribute to society and others around me, but can still have some fun and enjoy those Disney movies and dressing up in silly costumes for Halloween.

Maybe the people we used to be actually strengthen who we are today.  Maybe those personalities come together and shape each person we become – they are the mold to our bodies and we play through our childhood until we are fully formed, ready to create a new personality for our future self.

Why do we need to have a time limit on childhood?  Why can’t we have a little warning before my friends and I go out for our final “play date,” jump in the leaves, or bike ride around the neighborhood?

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I think the time between the end and the real world is almost like a reflection period of our childhood.  Should I have spent more time listening to the birds chirping, making snow angels, swinging on the playground, or having water balloon fights?

Maybe, in my next life, I can do that more often.  And then maybe, when I hit this point next, I’ll think of some other things I should have done before “leaving childhood” and start this loop all over again.

For now, I’ll try to live my best life yet.

Kevin at a Desk

What if You Jumped Forward 5 years?

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What if in the blink of an eye, you teleported five years into the future. It looks the same as you left it but you feel out of place and the people that you have been around you barely know who you are. How would life really be in the future?

Could you imagine not seeing a loved one for almost five years? What have they been up to? Did they get married and start a family or did they get that promotion that was sought after for years? The underlining questions and answers would create such a void of knowledge and emotions that could not be understandable.

The human functionality lives their lives day in and day out with only moment to dream about the future and reminisce about the past. To jolt it forward without expectation can be damning to the spirit.

All the goodbyes you never got to say to your loved ones in those five years. All the love you had for the special someone in your life. All the change you could have implemented for others, all the good. Gone. In an instant . It leaves the thought of the advantage for jumping ahead, what could that be?

What if you cheat death? What if you are revered for your work and reap the benefits from it? What if you get to see your grandson or grand daughter be born and actually have time for their growth? Was this the best thing that happened to you?

I think we all would wish for the thought of jumping ahead in time, to see what we might not have seen before. What is the damning part is the growth that happened around your time missing, like a old building being overtaken by vines and recaptured by the earth. You give up five years worth of memories, fun, pain; the whole life experience. Could you really settle for skipping out on life?

On the other hand, we could take this opportunity to see what may not be seen. The advancements of both man and machine. What wonders await you if the choice to take the journey was there. The feeling of immortality lays softly at your feet, seeing those around you age and you not a day. Could that even be withstood by humans? or is it a sheltered dream for us to borrow extra humanity?

Time will never be understood by man, woman, child, dog, cat, or anything in between. We will always want more of it while reminiscing of time we have already spent. It is an impossible question of going forward in time while also keeping the time we lose in the process. This is the biggest problem with this time travel thought.

On this journey, there is no return trip, its one way.