You're Already Living It

First Light

You've probably got a walk you barely notice anymore. Same street, same corners. Head down, phone out, already onto the next thing.

Funny how much of life ends up like that. On the way to somewhere else, half-here, saving the real living for once things finally slow down.

I almost skipped mine this week. Then something made me look up.

Glad I did.

You're Already Living It

You were told it would add up. Get the degree. Get the job. Work hard, keep your head down, don't complain. That was the deal, and you held up your end of it.

Then somewhere along the way, regardless of how you executed, you still haven't gotten where you expected to be. Rent went up (absurdly) while the raise didn't. Half of the friends group is closing on houses and you're quietly wondering, how the heck did I fall behind?

So you double down on your work. You work harder, because if it's not adding up, it must be you. You just haven't earned it yet. You'll convince yourself to slow down once you've caught up and got what you needed. Except catching up keeps feeling further and further away.

Here's the part I wish somebody had told me sooner. It's not you. That plan you followed and executed just changed while you were still doing it. You didn't fail the plan. The plan is no longer applicable.

And this whole time you've got your head down trying to create a great life, you're already living one.

I didn't really understand that until later. From a photo I almost didn't take.

Through the Lens

Dumbo, early evening. I raised the camera for the bridge just like everyone around me.

Then the light caught someone crossing the street. Just a person on a walk. For a second they were the whole picture, the main subject that lit up, and the frame the bridge sat inside.

Looking again later, I saw it wasn't about the bridge at all. It was about them. Walking through the most photographed view in the city and not looking at it once. A view people traveled all over the world just to capture. Since they lived there, it's just the walk home.

Sometimes, that's many of us. Heads down, crossing or passing moments that are beautiful to many, but ordinary to some of us. We forget how beautiful and important things are because we're moving too fast when we're in it.

What have you stopped seeing because it's just where you live?

Simple Secrets of Happy People

By David Niven, Ph.D.

Use a Strategy for Happiness.

You weren't born happy or unhappy. You're building it, right now, with what you keep doing. Happy people give themselves permission to feel good. Unhappy people keep repeating the things that wreck their mood — and call it fate. Figure out what happy people do. For me, it's to act like a kid - not to be childish, but childlike.

One Small Thing

There's a line in Life's Little Instruction Book I keep coming back to:

Have a dog.

One of the best lessons I have ever received wasn't from my parents, my friends, or relationships - it was from our family dog. He encompassed all of the five love languages: words of affirmation, physical touch, gifts, acts of service, and quality time.

He gave our family each of these languages generously. It reminded me why love languages matter: they're how we show people we care. Pour into the right person in the language they actually feel and it means the world to them.

Still figuring it out,
Joseph 😌