There seems to be a point in a lot of our lives when we simply give up on trying to do something with our lives that will make us feel truly alive. “Reality” catches up with you somewhere down the road. You realize that you need to make a living and that pursuing that thing that makes life worth living for you won’t bring you enough money to survive, so then you start to think that because you haven’t started to live the life that you want to live yet that you won’t ever be able to live that life, and then next thing you know, you give up on that life that you once dreamed of having. And because you have given up on trying to live the life that you want to live, you end up reaching a point where you feel like you need to settle for a life that isn’t really going to make you happy. Years go by and you find yourself stuck in this life that you’re living, and you may even start to figure that you’re never going to be able to live that life that you once thought that you could live.

You may have resigned yourself to live a life of complacency, but if you want more for your life than that then it’s not too late. If you constantly find yourself doing things that make you unhappy then it’s time to throw those things out of your life in a hurry. It doesn’t make sense to participate in activities that will weigh you down because when you do that you aren’t being true to yourself. And when you aren’t being true to yourself then you aren’t being your best self, and you deserve to be your best self positive thinker. Just because up until this point you’ve felt like you needed to engage in these spirit crushing activities doesn’t mean that you have to keep on doing it. Your path isn’t written in stone, so just because you’ve been doing things that haven’t been making you happy doesn’t mean that there isn’t time left in your life to start doing things that do make you happy.

In TV and in movies, and sometimes even in real life, people decide to start living the lives that they want to live after they receive some life altering news. Their doctor tells them that they only have a few months left to live, and so they drop everything that they were doing before that was making them unhappy and they start to pursue the things that they know are going to make them happy. A lot of TV shows and movies today don’t have the best lessons in them, but when these kinds of stories about people pursuing their dreams do come across our screens, a very clear message is presented to us— you shouldn’t have to wait until the end of your life to start living the life that you want to live. You deserve to be happy for all of your life, not just at the end of it, so don’t wait until the end of your life to start living with purpose. Go out and do things now that are in line with who you are as a person so that you can start to be happy now instead of waiting to be happy later.

And I know I’ve mentioned this before, but let me remind you again. You don’t have to just give up and leave your responsibilities behind you in order to live a life that allows you to do the things that bring you happiness. If you haven’t found a way to eliminate all of the things from your life that bring you down then you should at least make some time in your life to do the things that are going to bring you up. For instance, if you find yourself scrolling down your Facebook newsfeed for hours on end then try cutting back on that so that you can use your new found extra time to start doing things that are going to fill you up with new life. If you can spend time doing things that you don’t like to do then you should definitely find time to do the things that you do actually like to do because you’re only going to end up being a better and happier version of yourself because of it.

You shouldn’t give up on living a life that brings you happiness. We weren’t put here just to survive. We were put here so that we could live. Yes you have responsibilities now, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t start being who you wanted to be before life threw all of these new challenges your way, so go out there and find that thing or things that will give you life. Life’s to short to go around not living the life that you want to live, so if you find yourself living a half life, then go out there and find something that will make your life whole again!

Remember positive thinkers, “Strive to do things that define you. Say no to the things that don’t inspire you. Say yes to everything that fuels you. It’s the only life we live. Live it to your standards.”