One of the quickest ways to improve your life is to decide that you are going to enjoy it. Enjoyment requires no complicated tools, no special training, and no expensive resources. In fact, enjoyment requires nothing more than your choice to allow it.
The rewards of that choice can be enormous. Think for a moment of the most genuinely and consistently successful person you know. Does that person nearly always seem to be enjoying what he is doing? Most likely, the answer is yes. The fact is that those people who are the most spectacularly successful are the people who most fully enjoy what they are doing.
People who enjoy life are creative, productive, generous, compassionate, and contribute tremendously to the communities in which they live. They are enthusiastic about making a positive difference and work diligently to do so. Where others see only gloom and doom, people who truly enjoy life see valuable, positive opportunities. You can become one of those people right this very minute. As soon as you do, your life will begin to move in a more positive, successful direction.
Perhaps you think that there’s nothing enjoyable about your life right now. How, you wonder, can you enjoy life when there are the constant pressures of bills to be paid, health problems, difficult relationships, and a world filled with negativity? The answer is simple and infinitely empowering: you enjoy life by choosing to do so.
If you’re not fully enjoying life, the reason is that you’ve put conditions and restrictions on your enjoyment. You’ve decided that you cannot possibly enjoy life until you get a better job, or move to a bigger house, or find the perfect partner. You see other people who have accomplished the things you want to accomplish, and those people appear to be enjoying their lives, so you assume that in order to enjoy life, you must first be successful. Have you ever considered that you could have it exactly backward?
Long before Tiger Woods became successful at golf, he enjoyed playing the game. Long before Bill Gates founded the software company that would make him a multibillionaire, he enjoyed programming computers. Long before anyone had ever heard of Lance Armstrong, he enjoyed riding bicycles. Is there a lesson here? You bet there is! Enjoy what you do, and you’ll be good at it. Commit your life to doing what you enjoy, and the world will stand up, take notice, cheer you on, and throw roses at your feet as you pass by.
The fact is that every person who is alive is rich beyond all measure. Those who truly enjoy life are able to see and to tap into that richness. By choosing to enjoy this moment you challenge yourself to find the positive value that is most certainly there, and when you find that value, you can nurture it, build on it, and grow it into something even more valuable.
Enjoyment gives you an enormous competitive edge. If you truly love what you’re doing, and the person next to you absolutely hates what she is doing, who is going to do the best job? You are, of course. So, what happens when you have to do something that you hate? That’s easy—stop hating it, and start finding a way to enjoy it. Realize that enjoyment exists in your mind and that you are in full control of your mind. No outside condition can prevent you from enjoying life when you choose to do so. There is nothing you need for enjoyment other than your own choice.
If you have trouble making that choice, take a step back from yourself and objectively consider the alternatives. At any given time you can choose to be miserable, or you can choose to enjoy the moment. If you choose to be miserable, you’ll make more mistakes, you’ll drive people away, and you’ll have trouble getting anything done. Why would you ever choose to put yourself in that condition?
Certainly, there will be difficult, painful, and unpleasant things coming into your life on a regular basis. Yet, the question you must ask yourself is this: do you really want to add your own negative energy to the pain and difficulties, making them even more burdensome? Or would you rather begin to rise above those difficulties? Choosing to enjoy life will put you in a position to most effectively deal with whatever comes along.
A commitment to enjoyment does not mean pursuing a hedonistic life filled with nothing but empty pleasures. To be sure, many of life’s greatest pleasures can be transformed into sheer misery if you become so obsessed with them that they control your life. True enjoyment goes beyond mere pleasure. True enjoyment comes when you choose to be at peace with the moment and with who you are. True enjoyment comes when you value life simply because it is.
Though life is not always enjoyable, you can always enjoy being alive. By allowing yourself to enjoy the moment, whatever the moment may hold, you put yourself in a position to move positively and powerfully forward. The more you enjoy life, the more you’ll find to enjoy. Enjoy life, and you can truly make it great.
** This article is one of 101 great articles that were published in 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life. To get complete details on “101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life”, visit http://www.selfgrowth.com/greatways.html
Ralph Marston is the publisher of “The Daily Motivator” on the Web at http://www.DailyMotivator.com. The site features a new positive, daily message every Monday through Saturday and an archive of more than 2,500 previous messages as well as soothing, inspiring photographic presentations set to music. Ralph has published two books, The Daily Motivator to Go and Living the Wonder of It All, and is finishing another book on the subject of enjoying life that will be published in 2006.