The Grass is Always Greener (unless you have deuteranopia)

This weekend I had the same conversation, separately, with a few of my closest friends.

The theme: Happiness.

It seems that as we get older, we lose our ability to dream. Do you remember being younger and fantasizing about all of the opportunities your future had to offer?

What job would you have? Who would you marry? Would you take any exciting trips? What kinds of things would you do? How would your family look? Your house?

It was a limitless task, but for me it was always welcome. I spent hours (read as days) living in these daydreams. I liked it there because the possibilities were endless.

As the years pass us by, we are losing our imaginations. For this reason, I always prefer to sit at the kids table rather than with the adults. The kids are building ramps with their forks and spoons for their toy cars, while their parents are rattling on about the latest political debacle. Boring.

Understandably, as an adult, we have responsibilities. We can’t just sit around staring at the clouds all day. Believe me, I get it. The house needs to be cleaned, and the kids need to be taken care of. Please the boss, finish all the tasks on the checklist. Go, do, and then go, do some more. At the end of the day, just putting on pajamas to roll into bed is exhausting. There’s no time left to get creative.

But try, even just for a few minutes.

Can you build a better life? Is there one small change you could make to your day that would result in you smiling more than you did yesterday?

I bet the answer is yes.

Like many people, including myself, there is a recurring thought that pops in. It says… “this is life now.” And just like that, we accept it as fact. We’re too old to start new habits, search for new ideas, find what makes us happy.

All lies.

Why are we settling for less than? Why do we do this to ourselves?

This leads me to the idea that maybe we get stuck like the idiom suggests, thinking that “the grass is greener.” Well, is it possible that we are wasting too much time looking over the fence at our neighbor’s lush lawn rather than tending to our own yards? Or perhaps our land is so barren that even with the best fertilizer, water, and sunlight it couldn’t possibly be brought back to life?

Either we need to start looking for a new spot or we need to get to work. Doing nothing is not an option. However, somehow, it’s what most people choose to do. Nothing at all.

I write this just as much for myself as I do for you reading it. I don’t care if it’s a five-year plan, or a fifteen-year plan, but you’ve got to make moves. They can be little, or they can be leaps, but continue the forward march. Don’t settle for being satisfied. Don’t stop dreaming. Believe that happiness exists and can be yours.

Whether I’m 38 or 98, the day that I die is the day that I give up dreaming. Until then, I’ll be up here living in the clouds, where I belong.