I have a few quotes that I live by, the one that has stuck with me the longest is probably “Live life like there is no tomorrow”. That one for me has the strongest meaning and encompasses who I am and what I stand for.
Live life like there is no tomorrow… what does it mean to you?
For me it is…
- Living life without regrets
- Being honest in both my actions and my words
- Treating others as I want to be treated
- Experiencing both the ups and downs with the taste of life in my mouth
- Laughing as much as possible
- Seeing all sides to stories and doing my best to understand them
- To not give up at the first hurdle
- To cherish those in my life as much as I can
- To always let those I love know that I love them
- To learn new things constantly
- To face any challenge head on and to learn through them
- To experience new things, eat new food and to see new places
The other one that I quote often is “What will be will be”. This one frustrates more than a few because it is interpreted that I just don’t care or that I am not going to work for what I want, go along for the ride like a piece of driftwood. For me though it means accepting what is and working with that. If plans don’t happen then there will be something better along the way, I will follow my gut and heart, not get discouraged at the first hurdle. I believe in a life plan and trust in that… most days.
I adopted another a couple of years ago during the time I was climbing out of my breakdown and back into the world. It wasn’t so strong back then, merely a phrase that I adopted and held onto without having the courage to look at the true depth of the words.
Nothing worthwhile is ever easy…
For me, for this lifetime, that phrase has gained more and more meaning. I have sought freedom for many years now both from my past and my present, I’ve fought to travel to new lands and to live by my first quote. The one thing my freedom hasn’t been is easy, it’s come at great cost and torment.
My thinking though is life is much like a toy that is built quickly and cheaply won’t last long and the pleasure will be short lived, the toy won’t be treasured as much either. A toy that takes time and care to build out of materials that take time to source will out last anything made in a quicker fashion, it will be treasured more because of the pain it took to create.
I see this with kids all the time, give them a task that is easy for them they will feel less accomplishment and satisfaction, same goes for adults. Give a kid a simple lego set including 100 pieces and they’ll follow the instructions no sweat, they won’t stress one bit or get upset. Once the lego set has been completed it is put on the shelf till an adult starts dusting and quitly puts it in the lego dungeon where it lies unmissed. Give a kid a complex lego set with more pieces than the first and they will cry in frustration, perhaps even through the odd tantrum, they will proverbially pull their hair out, try to give up, come back for more, try again and again till they succeed. Once that complex lego set is built though it takes pride and glory over all others, it goes on the mantlepiece, treasured and shined, it never goes near the lego dungeon for if it is moved one millimeter it is noticed.
Even though the complex lego set was harder to build, even though it hurt them emotionally, frustrated them and brought them to the brink of accepting failure they perservered and they feel a sense of accomplishment and success through it all.
Nothing worthwhile in life is ever easy.
We get taught this early on in life but we don’t see it, only in time and after many challenges do we start to get a sense of the truth, do we realise that sometimes it is better to get challenged because the pleasure and happiness will last longer in our success.
We live. We Learn.
So my two long standing life quotes “Live life like there is no tomorrow” and “What will be will be” get an official friend… “Nothing worthwhile in life is ever easy”
Do you have life quotes and what do they mean to you?
