How to Live the Life You Want… Right Now!

Success to me is living the life I want to live. I’m doing that right now… kind of. There’s a fine line between what we want and what we think we want. Sometimes that line gets blurry. And sometimes life circumstances get in the way.

Truth be told, I’m like a good majority of the human race. I want something more, or perhaps less, than I currently have. The point is, I’m not exactly where I want to be right now. If I had my druthers, this would be my life:

  • Retired with over a million dollars in my retirement account.
  • My daughter would be off to college and I could afford to pay for it.
  • Living in a small house very close to the ocean in Washington, Oregon or Northern California.
  • I’d have a nice residual income from writing and music.
  • Working part time, but only when I wanted to, and not because I have to.
  • I’d spend a lot of time traveling and walking.

This Is Not My Reality, but It Could Be

As you might guess, the above points are not my current reality. I’m working full-time, living in a noisy city, feeling rushed, my kid has four years of high school left, and I’m lucky to make $10 a month in residual income. But hey, a guy can dream right?

And that’s part of my point. There’s nothing wrong with visualizing where we would like to be a few years down the road. However, you can’t get too stuck in the dream. You have to stay awake and make some badass decisions… daily.

Today, I made a decision to write another blog post. It might not make me a red cent, but I’m practicing my craft. That could lead to a future well-written book that becomes a best-seller.

Last week, I made a decision to put an extra $500 into my savings account. I could have had my car windows tinted and bought a fancy pair of shoes. But I put the money aside for the future.

Last summer, I set my things up to save an extra $300 a month into a second retirement account. I might never reach a million, but I could reach half that within the next five years by adding that little extra.

Accept Your Now and Live the Life You Want

Chances are good that even if you were able to live the life you envision as your perfect life, there would still be days from hell. Shit would still happen. It’s inevitable. There is no perfect life. There is no absolute success.

But here’s what we can do:

  1. Accept our current situation and do our best within the those conditions.
  2. Discover ways to better ourselves and our situation every day.
  3. Think forward without forgetting to act now.
  4. Plan for the future without creating absolute expectations.
  5. Spend time with the ones we love doing the things we love.

What are you doing right now? Reading this post? That’s okay. Hopefully, it’s both inspirational and motivational. But I also hope that it might help you to accept life as it is while working toward life as it will be. That’s about all we can do.

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