“Brush teeth. Go to work. Come home. Eat dinner. Sleep.

Brush teeth. Go to work. Come home. Eat dinner. Sleep.”

These were the words of someone mumbling under his breath as he brushed his teeth in front of the mirror — a mantra he has recited over the years to keep himself sane.

And it makes me sad to hear how many people, like him, grind through life the same way — having to commit your entire adulthood to a cause you don’t really believe in and not having enough time to pursue what it is that you want.

I mean, is that the kind life worth living?

Think about it. By the time you’ve already saved enough money to settle down to have a family and enjoy the remaining years you have left, you’d already likely be past your 50s —the time of age when our bodies have already started deteriorating and no longer as young as we once were. Our bones becoming more brittle, our minds becoming more forgetful, our senses dulled, our metabolism slowed.

When that time comes, do we still have the energy to do what we’ve always wanted to do?

Time passes quicker than we think and most people don’t seem to realize how precious life is until it’s too late. We focus all our attention towards working hard and saving up in order to ‘afford’ the happiness we dream of, when in truth, it isn’t necessary.

“Happiness is a choice you make and a skill that you develop. You choose to be happy, and then you work at it. It’s just like building muscles.”
~quote from Tim Ferriss’ book

Most of us are happier as kids — the things we want to do, we do, the people we’ve want to be with, we’re with — there’s no overthinking, no stressing out over things that don’t matter, and no judgement. And while it is realistically impossible to live life as we once were, as kids, because of the responsibilities we uphold, there’s no reason why we can’t continue to pursue the things we want and the people we want to be with.

Too many of us believe that happiness is a destination that can only be earned through the making of money when in truth, it’s through discovering ourselves, experiencing things that we find fascinating or interesting, pursuing it and building life-long quality relationships with people that truly makes us happy and gives us a life worth living.