I realize that many people struggle in their lives, dealing with a wide range of negative emotions and thoughts on a daily basis.
Regret for not taking advantage of past opportunities or making the wrong decision during a pivotal moment.
Stress and anxiety when it comes to finances and being able to pay the bills and afford a way of living.
Unhappiness with a career (or lack thereof) that doesn’t provide the chance for advancement.
But what if there was a better approach to all of this? What if there was a way to change your views on life so that your daily 50,000 or so thoughts (the majority being the same more or less as yesterdays and the day before) aren’t dominated by negativity but instead with feelings of gratitude and possibility?
I call this the Icing on the Cake Perspective.
Right now you are alive (that’s your cake!).
You got out of bed this morning (willingly or unwillingly is beside the point) and you are breathing, feeling, thinking, and experiencing life.
Think for a moment about the thousands of people that die each and every day. From the ones who were sick, to those who got in an accident, to those that simply went to bed and never woke up.
You are living. You have the precious opportunity to continue experiencing the most incredible thing that we as a species are capable of fathoming. Life.
Your past is over and done with. The decisions you made back then are kaput, but the ones you decide to make right now are in your control.
Why not look at this present moment, and all the future potential moments that may come as an added bonus, as icing on the cake for your life?
Instead of taking the same old run down perspective that’s filled with negativity, it’s in your power to view everything from a refreshingly new vantage point.
We all have problems to deal with, some increasingly more significant than others. But at least you have the opportunity to work on and get through them, to learn from them, to become a better and improved person because of them.
Just ask yourself: would you rather be dead?
Our time on this planet is transient. We all understand this superficially, but it’s critical to truly comprehend the magnitude of this statement.
One day we will die.
One day will be our very last day.
That means that there will be a final time that we get to experience many of the things in life worth living for, and we most likely won’t even know it.
If something is important to you that you don’t do often enough or at all, make the time to do it.
If you’ve wanted to make a positive life change but have been too fearful to take the first step, make the time to do it.
If your life is currently not on the path that you want it to be on, make the time to change it.
As Paul Graham said, “Cultivate a habit of impatience about the things you most want to do.”
Do not wait.
Leave your past where it is.
Take the present and every future moment you’re fortunate to be blessed with from an icing on the cake perspective.