I'm Waiting For My Real Life To Begin

It occurs to me how easy it is to lose sight of all the important things in life. We all have priorities in our lives, many of which vary from person to person, but some remain constant.

Many of us measure our lives by the success we have had. The main flaw I find in people, including myself, is the means by which we create that line of success. How do we judge success? Is it measured by money? By academic achievement? By rank and title? Or is it by that which we often forget, the successes in life that may not return a tangible benefit like fortune, like rich lifestyle, like sycophantic admiration?

The former is often how we judge ourselves, and that's not all wrong. Many of us have goals in life, and those goals are admirable ones, assuming they do make us forget the other elements of life. The latter, well that is an element of life that heralds a beauty I believe is unparalleled in this brief existence.

What of family? Morality? Inspiration? Loyalty?

These are things that many of us, alongside our career aspirations, pride highly; But how often do we forget these things? How often do we let these things drift to the background, because we believe the fast pace of life today demands we do so, whether we want to or not?

All too often I fear.

These are the things that are life. To work continuously, ever allowing the fast pace of life to spiral out of control, and force those more important elements to background, is merely to survive.

To live - now there is a challenge.

It makes me think of a song I rather enjoy:

Any minute now, my ship is coming in
I'll keep checking the horizon
I'll stand on the bow, feel the waves come crashing
Come crashing down down down, on me

And you say, be still my love
Open up your heart
Let the light shine in
But don't you understand
I already have a plan
I'm waiting for my real life to begin

There is a clever message in this song, and it inspires me to understand something that I think I forgot all about.

Having a plan is not enough. Waiting for your life to begin is folly. You must make it happen, for if you don't, you may well wake up one day, realising you have accomplished much in the fast paced world, and in turn have let the true essence of life pass you by.

You might just wake up one day and realise that you're on your own, and while you worked and focussed on academia and fortune, your life, your family and all you thoguht you prized so highly has passed you by.

Inspiration is all anyone needs.

Consider me inspired.