The Slow Walk Towards Paradise

Who among us can admit, without a smirk of sarcasm on his/her face, that we are living “just another day in paradise?” I do not pretend to believe that there are not people out there who are happy and content with themselves and their lives. However, I do believe that the overwhelming majority of people are constantly seeking and chasing after more.

After every gift we are given (both figuratively and literally), or every accomplishment we achieve, we are often immediately preoccupied with what comes next. We forget that we should stop and appreciate and enjoy the moment that we have worked towards and realized. With the abundance of distracting and lustrous options that our modern world offers we tend to get caught up in a race that appears to be never ending.

I can imagine you now looking at the screen perplexed, I bet you’re asking yourselves “what’s wrong with wanting to do more, be more, and have more?”  Nothing. Even more confused? That’s because what I am proposing to better our current world is simply balance.

I think that we need to seriously consider our priorities and our commitments. I think that if we all made an effort to slow down our lives, and even our ambitions at times, that we could all be a little happier. We would have more time to spend with the people in our lives who make us smile. We would have more time to make them smile in return.

I am not proposing that we stop making and working towards goals, or stop doing the things that bring us enjoyment. Instead, I suggest that we, me included, make a conscious effort to slow down. Perhaps after we get that promotion at work we should take some time to enjoy the success instead of fixating and stressing about making it to the next one. Or on a smaller scale, instead of making multiple commitments to multiple people throughout the week and stressing over having the time for all of them and making everyone happy, maybe we should budget our time and focus on making ourselves happy as well.

I think that if people strove for this balance in their lives that we could really improve and share the parts of ourselves that would make others happier as well.