I will admit right now that I am one of those obnoxious people who has used the hashtag #livingmybestlife before. And while I feel it’s true, I realize more and more that the way it’s commonly used doesn’t capture the spirit of what a best life truly is.
Some recent reading helped me clarify a distinction that is embedded in living one’s best life but one that, quite unfortunately, gets left out of popular interpretation or understanding. Which is this – any life, INCLUDING a best life, has good things and hard things.
THERE IS NO VERSION OF A BEST LIFE THAT IS ONLY GOOD AND NO BAD.
Read that again as many times as you need.
It is simply not a real life, at all, to think there is a life with no bad and only good. And, as some may argue (like Susan Cain, in her most recent book Bittersweet), life is enriched because of those poignant good/hard moments.
Another recent read – Ryan Holiday’s book The Obstacle is the Way – similarly reminded me that overcoming obstacles doesn’t mean there are no future obstacles. We don’t get through a hard time and then, suddenly, there are no more hard times. Obstacles ARE the way, meaning that coming to the understanding that facing obstacles IS, in fact, life – that is the true understanding.
#livingyourbestlife still includes sadness, disappointment, anger, grief…all the feels, really. And instead of fighting it - thinking you shouldn’t have tough times or wishing it weren’t so - living ALL parts of your best life is what makes it worth living.
