Too often we forget why we’re here. Caught in an endless, empty race without a real prize, we run each day trying to fulfill our own expectations, other people’s expectations, or just simply blindly following rules we don’t understand. We forgot what is the real reason of our existence: to enjoy it. To breathe life every second and thrill with it. Here’s a list of 7 simple reasons to enjoy life even in the fastest, emptiest, dullest and mindless race we chose to run.

Beginnings

Every little thing we start is a creation. A miracle by itself. Think for a second: before we activate the Universe to make it happen, there is nothing there. Picture a cup of coffee in your mind. Before you pour the water, add the brown powder and put some heat on it, there is nothing there. Separated pieces of matter, drifting around in your environment, without any intention to glue them together. It was you who changed this and manifested a cup of coffee where there was nothing before.

I am a big fan of beginnings. I am addicted to them. Every time I start something, I enjoy my creative super powers. Because there’s no need to start big, in order to enjoy your creative super powers, all you need is to start. Size has nothing to do with beginnings: even the biggest journey started with only one step. That atomic action, that infinitesimal shift in the current texture of the Universe, this incredible small intention, that is a magical thing. Putting together separated pieces of your environment and transform them into something new, that is enchanting.

Beginnings are filling us with enthusiasm, passion and eagerness. Every time we start doing something, being it a cup of coffee or a new relationship, being it a walk in the park or circling around the word, we’re using our divine, immortal persona. Just make sure you realize that next time you’re making coffee.

People You Love

You may be sad, but when they are around, you’re happy. You may be struggling with financial difficulties, but when you think at them, everything seems easy. You mayÂ be stumbling in the darkest depression and yet, only by thinking at them, your path seem a little bit clearer. They are the people you love. They are the ones who’re making you abandon your own wishes, in an unspeakably happy surrender to something bigger than you. They are sometimes your only reason to live.

Have you thought what makes you love them? What are the reason behind your love? I hope you didn’t find the answer. Because you don’t need one. You just love them. Loving somebody is outside reason, outside logic, beyond our analytical understanding of the world. Love is our greatest mystery and the people we love are its messengers. They tend to arrive at impossible moments in our lives and destroy all the solid foundations we thought we had. Only to build new, better and stronger ones.

Life is not easy. It can pull you in different directions and suck the last drop of energy out of you. And yet, in the most desert period of your existence, you’ll still have somebody to love. The moment you stopped loving other people, you stopped loving yourself. And without love, yes, life is empty, dull and mindless.

Creating Value

You do have a talent. Something that is unique to you. It doesn’t need to follow social rules or be converted into a career. It’s just something you’re great at. Every time you do that, every time you’re performing that special talent of yours, you’re creating value. It may be just that you make people laugh. Or comfort them by speaking. Or dancing. Or writing. Something that just flows through you and reach other people almost effortless. Creating value is what gives you a sense of usefulness and presence.

I love creating value. I love mastering different skills. I love the feelings I have when something I did proves useful for somebody else. Lately, this happens on this blog. People email me and tell me they felt motivated by my writing. Sometimes, they are even old friends who almost lost contact and incidentally found me while browsing the net. Every time I have one of those moments I feel fulfilled. A deep, strong and almost explosive emotion, leaving me thrilled and filled with adrenaline.

Making yourself useful to other people is drastically underrated in our modern society. A sense of blind ego and empty performance has replaced this natural flow: it doesn’t matter how you can make people happy with what you do, but rather what you get in return. No wonder you can’t enjoy life in such a limiting mindset.

Enjoying Value Created By Other People

When was the last time you felt inspired while listening to good music? Or watching an excellent movie? Or just enjoying new, simple yet elegant clothes? Or eating out deliciously at a nice restaurant, on a magical summer evening? On any of these occasions you were enjoying value created by other people. Somebody else created that music, imagined those clothes, made that movie, prepared that dinner. Somebody else used his or her unique talent and made you feel special.

I love to enjoy value created by other people. It gives me a sense of connection and validation. I feel like I am part of something bigger. Somewhere, somehow, there is a master plan and I am part of it. I mean something. Somebody took his time and skills and imagination and created something for me. I am enriched by that thing. I am better and I feel better while enjoying it. And I am also sending my respect to the creators. Refusing this flow of good stuff that comes to me is just against nature.

Living a life of abstinence in the name of fake modesty is so frustrating. Disconnecting from other people while waiting to transcend some twisted, invisible layers of “limiting” pressure is simply stupid. I do experience some abstinence every now and then, but only as an appetizer: makes the whole thing taste so much better.

Your Current Moment

Being in the current moment is a magic experience. And like any other magic it doesn’t require more of this world, but rather less. In order to really be in the current moment, you don’t need to learn something new, but get rid of what you already know. Leave back your worries, your frustrations, your memories and just stay here. Enjoy what you see. What you feel. What you hear or touch. You are designed for this specific experience, not for worrying and stacking frustration over frustration until you crack up.

Being in the current moment doesn’t have anything to do with positive or negative emotions. Anger or joy are two faces of the same coin. Being in the current moment while you’re angry has the same result as being in the current moment while you’re joyful. Rejecting what you feel because it’s “wrong” will simply kill the current moment and replace it with some mental notion about it. Instead of living your moment, you’ll live your theoretical notion about what you “should” feel., repressing the genuine feeling. And that’s so tasteless and dead.

The current moment is the only moment you have. As fragile as it is, it has this enormous power of making you alive. Don’t suffocate it with unnecessary garbage from the past, or with volatile worries about the future. Everything you have and need is right here. Right now.

The Unexpected

One of the most popular and delusive hoaxes of all time is that life could be predictable. Life is not predictable. Life is what’s happening while you’re busy making plans. The unexpected is the key ingredient here. Trying to eliminate the unexpected in your life, making your path as safe as you can, will be the only sure proof way to die of boredom. If no challenge will be there for you, if no surprising events will shake your universe, if nothing unforeseen will pop up suddenly, then what’s left for you to do?

I used to fight against the unexpected. Especially while I had my business. Seemed the most reasonable way to manage a business. Eliminate all the possible bad outcomes and wait for the good ones to manifest. Sadly, it didn’t worked out. Apparently, the only way to enjoy a steady and healthy growth for my business was to embrace the unexpected and take advantage of it in every way I can. Without the unpredictable changes in the market, I wouldn’t have any growth whatsoever.

While I don’t reject a solid preparation for starting your days, I don’t think this by itself will eliminate the unexpected in your life. Fortunately. Being prepared when the unpredictable happens is something completely different than rejecting it. So much better to be hit by a wave, and enjoy it, rather than pretend the sea is still.

Endings

What goes up, must come down. Every beginning has an end. And I find as much thrill and joy of life in a healthy ending as I find in a genuine beginning. Every ending is a confirmation that what’s started has reached its maturity. The purpose have been fulfilled. It’s not the ending in itself that causes suffering, it’s the attachment. Yes, pain is unavoidable, but suffering is optional. Most of the time, though, I find out endings are not painful at all. They’re most like reaching the top of a mountain: you did it, now go down and start another one.

People try to make things last for unbelievably long periods of time. It’s an unconscious attempt to beat time. What a waste of resources. Time allows us to exist, how can you think to beat something that allows you to be. It’s a contradiction in terms. You can’t beat your own context, you’re in it. For instance, people are struggling to make their relationships last longer. Longer than what? Every thing has a purpose, if the purpose has been reached, it’s time for a new beginning. Enjoy the ending and let go.

If you don’t allow endings, you’re blocking other things form manifestation. Making something last more than its original intention will just hurt everybody. Enjoy the end and welcome a new beginning. Like this blog post. It’s over now. Time for you to start something new. 🙂