You Are Already Living "Your Best Life"

If you’ve been an adult for any appreciable amount of time, you chose the career you are in, and the place where you live.

The car you drive, your physical body, and your current financial situation are, with the exception of extreme circumstances like a debilitating illness or a major car accident, each reflections of thousands of daily choices up to this point.

Everything about you is the result of a conscious choice you freely made.

Neuro-linguistuic programming (NLP) is the study of human behavior that operates from this presupposition, among others: “People always make the best choice for them, at the time".

Reckless credit card spending, spending hours on Netflix instead of learning a marketable skill, selecting cake over vegetables, are each momentary decisions that have long term consequences.

Most of these things feel really good in the moment, or else you wouldn’t do them. The accumulated results of these choices are highly negative, and their effects take much longer to undo.

The life you currently live is the result of thousands of decisions of what was “best” for you, every day up to this point.

You are already living your “best life”.

Legendary author, sales expert, and motivational speaker, Earl Nightingale advised, “We are all self-made, but only the successful admit it.”

A “best life” isn’t just Instagram photos of tropical islands, super cars, and bikini models.

It’s the job you applied for and, at one point, probably wanted badly.

It’s easy to forget this when scrolling through highlight reels of other people’s beach vacations and romantic weekends while you kill time in a meaningless work meeting.

First you make your choices, then your choices make you.

Even if your current job is a stepping stone to your end goal of the corner office, it’s a necessary and important step.

The same applies to your current apartment, your car, maybe even the city you live in.

The lessons and challenges you will face on the journey from internship to executive level, from cramped apartment with roommates, to stylish loft, are where you learn the skills to thrive once out get where you’re going.

I’m currently sitting at a garage sale kitchen table, typing this out on a second hand MacBook.

I may dream of someday being a best-selling author on a national book tour, but the truth is that I am not ready.

I have a lot to learn before I would be prepared to discuss my writing on “Good Morning, America”.

The journey between the kitchen table and the set of a national news show is where I’ll learn that. It’s not just an aphorism in a fortune cookie: “The Journey is the destination”.

Similarly, in his fantastic book, “Unscripted”, MJ DeMarco advised, “Pursuing the dream IS the dream.”

Chances are good that you are reading this in a climate controlled room, on the fastest wireless internet ever available, on a pocket sized device with enough computing power to launch a space shuttle. The technology we take for granted today would blow Nikolai Tesla’s mind (although he probably saw it coming).

It’s a mistake to wait to also be on an African safari, lounging in a private jet, on your way to a lavish celebrity wedding, to realize that your #bestlife is happening right here, in this moment.

We fantasize about these experiences because we think they will make us happy.

Happiness, however, like any of the hundreds of emotions we can experience, is a choice.

Your emotions are dictated by where you are focusing your attention.

You have the power to change your mood easily, in any moment.

Once you realize that, you can enjoy your best life anywhere you are.

Like this? Read my posts: 

“How to Control Your Mood and Feel Amazing”

“Instagram Is Making You Miserable”