Last week was my daughter’s ninth birthday. As dedicated parents, we of course made her birthday special with a day off from school, work (for me), balloons, activities, presents, and more!
Birthdays Are So Exciting And Something We All Look Forward To...Until….
What happens to us as we get older? Why do we stop celebrating? Is it that we don’t care because it happens yearly? I don’t think so. I think it comes back to Storytelling. As termed in my book, The Gifted Storyteller, storytelling is when we make a story up in our head, either the way we would like something to happen, or the way we fear something will happen, and then learn reality is very different.
We Stop Celebrating As Openly Because We Became Tired Of Being Disappointed
In other words, we had a few birthdays that didn’t turn out the way we had hoped, and to protect ourselves, we decide we won’t make such a big deal about our birthday to make sure the disappointment isn’t as big. Bluntly, expectations not met dull down our happiness. This happens with birthdays, seasons, and other areas of our life, until we reach a point where we just watch time pass, and wonder why everything is moving faster.But Here’s The Truth…
1) Time isn’t moving faster! You are on autopilot, and not appreciating the gifts all around you. Stop and take in the moments, or smell the roses as the quote goes.
2) Celebrate - all the F#$%^n time! Celebrate your wins, your losses (or should I say your lessons), the fact that you're breathing, the fact that you can read, birds chirping, wind howling, a table you're using, and so on. Celebrate everything so your brain learns to see the celebrations all around you.
3) Remember. Socrates once said, learning is just remembering. Remember who you are, before all the hurt, before all the disappointments, etc.
Look at the world through fresh eyes daily, and in it, you will find what you seek.