Mae West once said, “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
Oooo…….this is so GOOD! Doesn’t it make you want to just get out there and grab life by the bra straps? Sell it all and live like a total Badass!?
(Queue resting bitch face)
“Ummm……well……yes……but…….some of us have jobs, ya know. There’s the mortgage, a car payment, tuition and credit card balances to take care of every, damn month. Plus, Johnny wants the new iPhone. So, WTAF?! Go sell your pie-in-the sky shit to someone else.”
Yep, you’re right. Some of us have pretty big, grown up things to pay for.
And some of us don’t.
What’s the difference? Choices.
These “grownup responsibilities “sound very necessary and pragmatic and I know you’re saying, “Hey! That’s just the way things are.” But if you really look closer and added them all up, you’ll realize they are all just the accumulation, or the by-product, of the choices we’ve made in life.
So I am going to ask you an uncomfortable question……
How many of these choices (that you work so hard for) really make you truly happy as a whole?
Yep. Uh-huh. I thought so.
Unfortunately, since the day we were born, we have been inundated by TV marketers and now IG and Facebook Ads that we need something outside ourselves to be happy. (Remember Saturday morning Bugs Bunny? Didn’t you want that Easy-Bake Oven? I sure did.)
What are they trying to say? What’s the underlying message?
“You…..and what you have……are not enough. You have a problem. And this thing will solve it.”
But this internalized, cultural voice is a liar. Because Enough doesn’t come from “out there”. Enough is an inside job.
On average we see and hear about 5,000 advertisements every day and every single one of them seeks to convince us that we need something outside of ourselves to be happy, feel complete or deserve love.
And because we are marinating in that message so many times, from so many angles like FB, IG, TV, print and billboard…….we internalize it. We believe it.
And as a result, we are all working long hours at soul-crushing jobs all week, so that we can pay for it all.
Ask yourself this:
How Badass did you feel when you leased that shiny, new car?
Put that down-payment on your dream house?
Or strapped on those bitchin’ new Nikes?
And how long did it last? How long until that nagging voice came back? The voice in your head that says……”it’s not enough”?
Was it when the next model year came out? Or when your BFF remodeled her kitchen? Or the sneakers got dirty?
Come on…..Deep down, we know this shit doesn’t make us happy. We all know people that “have it all” are often miserable. And we all know that the “new car smell” doesn’t last.
So what’s the deal? Why do we keep believing? Why do we keep buying in?
Because the marketing works. It’s programmed us. We have been brainwashed.
So what do we do?
Make different choices. Hey……I get it. It’s hard to break out of our programmed beliefs and habits. I was there…..and more often than I care to admit, I go right back to some of them like a bad boyfriend. But it took a life-altering event to get me to change.
But you don’t have to wait. Shit doesn’t have to hit the fan for you to change your life.
Jim Carey once said:
”I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”
I love this. He’s obviously successful by culture’s standards. But standing amidst all his possessions and accolades…..all the things he thought would make him happy……he still felt empty. Why? Because it wasn’t the stuff. It wasn’t the fame.
Lasting happiness only comes from what money can’t buy. Love, health, vitality, hope and peace. You can’t buy it and you can’t be given it.
So stop sacrificing your time, energy and life by settling for what they tell you you should want. Go after what you really want.
Mae West was right. Life is short. Time goes by quick. And once we use it up, we can’t get it back.
So what are you going to do with your one, beautiful life?
Not sure? Book a free call here and I’ll help you figure out how to live the life you really want.
XOXO,
Traci