I read an interesting blog post last week entitled Life without a Blackberry.
The post describes how nobody would want to watch a movie about a fellow who worked very hard his whole life in order to buy a shiny red sports car at the end. It’s a dull plotline, so why do so many of us feel such a strong temptation to live our lives like that?
Christine gave up a high-flying city career and has just spent three months volunteering on a street children’s project in the Philippines. She has taken the bold first step of committing to try to live a life with an interesting plotline.
After my talks people often say to me “I would love to do x,y,z” but they are too daunted to begin. My answer is always the same: “Do it. Try it. Begin. If you hate it or miss your old life too much you can always go back to it. That is so much better, I feel, than having regrets later on.”
Dream it. Begin it. Try it.
It’s true that we are sold a never-ending stream of life-upgrades, each promising to bring our existence slightly closer to that ever-elusive plateau of perfection. Chasing the next best thing presses our evolutionary buttons, regardless of how contrived that thing might be in reality. Of course it doesn’t make us at all happier or more fulfilled, because we have to expend all our time and energy working ourselves to the bone to pay for it all!
I read a very down-to-earth, pragmatic book recently on this topic called ‘Enough’ by John Naish, a British journalist (get it here 2nd hand for 12p). Also worth a read is the NEF’s Five Ways To Well-Being (there’s a 21st-century-attention-span slideshow version here).
You make a great point with your post, I think we are often deceived by the ilusion that we have more time than we actually do in this world, or that we KNOW that we will live to a hundred and plan according to that, instead of being fully and happily today, we save up for that red car in the future, as you put it, that movie will not win and oscar.
Thanks for sharing your view on this, it is inspirational, I will tell my friends about your site.