Be a Lucky One

You know those stupid “last year this time” memories that pop in your Facebook news feed?  From my personal experience, Facebook normally gets it wrong and it’s some stupid terrible photo that I quickly hurry up and delete. Well, this time…   Um.. yeah… this morning, the floodgates opened.  I’ll explain:

Just last year, today, I was heading from Glendalough toward Wexford on a bicycle. For those of you who don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, do a Google search for #AroundIrelandOnAPushie.

So this morning, I was just sitting there looking at this photo remembering exactly how this unique and special this adventure was to me.  And you know what I realised?  I’m one of the lucky ones.

It’s kinda hard to explain what I mean because there’s so many layers to this… so, I’m really going to try and explain as best I can without offending anyone.  I’m one of the lucky ones, because I’m not bitter by life.

Yesterday, I met someone who couldn’t be more different than me.  This guy was younger me by about ten years and he was wearing a power suit.  He explained to me that he couldn’t do what he ‘really’ wanted to do because, “Oh you know how it is…”  He was so blasé…  Like the tone of his voice was even making me feel exhausted.

I’ve heard this statement a bazillion times and I get it.  I really do and this is where we completely differ.

I’m not here to rag anyone out or hurt anyone’s feelings – I’m not here to do that.  Instead, I’m here to help you think and tell you that you actually have options.

With a loud sigh, ‘power suit man’ explained how he’s got a kid now.. a one-year old to be exact, and a wife and “someone needs to hold down the fort.”  Basically, this guy was saying to me, “I can, but.. I can, but…” and what bothered me about this conversation was how he was blaming the fact he couldn’t do what he wanted because he got married and had a family.

“I can, but…” was his reasoning.  I wanted to scream at him, “You can do ANYTHING!”  Now before you get all angry at me… let me explain a bit more:  I get that we all make choices and have responsibilities in life and sometimes they’re beyond our control… but I mean… I think we all need to OWN the decisions that we make…  and even the ones that just happen to us and we can’t fix… I seriously wanted to grab this guy’s shoulders and yell at him, “Own that choice, mother fucker.  Own it like you’re the dragon slayer of your own life!  Be the most epic person you know and show that little human you crated how awesome you and your wife really are as persons on this Earth!  You have the power and more importantly, you only have one life.”

We make choices every day.  We make choices to get up go to work, drink coffee, go on holidays… jump off big scary cliffs… learn a foreign language, go for long walks on the beach… Our choices are endless and we’re surrounded by them!

Like last year, I chose to quite my job to go on this epic adventure around Ireland on a bike.  I needed a change in the daily routine in my life, so I embraced it 100%.  Why go on an adventure that’s only 50%? What’s the point then?  #AroundIrelandoOnAPushie shocked me and it taught me so much about choices and life.  Sure, I didn’t have to go on an adventure… I could have just stayed home and gone to work every day as I normally did.  But, I decided to challenge my norm and that’s when I completely shocked myself.

Just this morning, I thought to myself…. “If I only knew THEN what I know NOW…”  Well, tell you what, I’d know to relax bit more and believe in myself… but that’s kinda besides the point.  Going on an incredible adventure, like“Pushie” taught me that I can take grater risks… Like, I realised half way though the adventure, that #AroundIrelandOnAPushie was never about the bike, but about a girl trying to find her place int he world.

So going back to the loud sighing ‘power-suit dude’… Perhaps you haven’t found yourself.. and that’s ok – I haven’t either… What I’m suggesting is maybe all of us need to embrace what we have and make the change within ourselves and our thoughts so we’re all happier.  Take that bored energy, tragic event you experienced or whatever it is that your brain is using as a ‘life hang-up’ and  into something that makes you happy.

I can’t stress enough how incredibly important it is to choose to live NOW…  You don’t want finally figure out that you have so much you missed in life because you kept saying, “I can’ but…” Don’t waste the life you’ve been given.  Be a lucky one and use your choices to really BE someone.  Stop the sighs.. stop the ‘yeah.. buts” and just DO, BE, EXPERIENCE, BE SILLY, EMBRACE and LOVE.

And, don’t forget to hug.  Hugs are the BEST.