Having a positive outlook on life

As the year draws to a close, I see a lot of tweets about 'this year has been shit, can't wait for the next one'. And even more annoying are the people who say things like 'is it just me or has this year been like really good but really bad at the same time'. Let me spell something out for you. Time is linear! It keeps flowing and moving forwards; it did before you were born and it will do after you die. It's not segmented in the way we like to think it is; days, months and years are just concepts made by people to try and introduce some order, and to help with memory and reference. There is no reason why January 1st will bring you anything different than December 31st because time just keeps moving forwards. It's not a 'good' or 'bad' year; it's just life.

Of course, it was lil wayne who brought us the famous line 'life is such a fucking roller coaster' and it's the way in which you need to start seeing it too. The down parts don't equate to a bad rollercoaster (or life), they just help you to appreciate the up parts. And if you plugged yourself in to a heart monitor right now you'd see exactly the same patterns; ups and downs. Which doesn't mean happiness, sadness or anything else. It simply means you're alive. Without ups and downs, you'd be dead.

I've said before that comparison is the robbery of joy and it doesn't only apply to yourself (weight, attractiveness, intelligence etc) but it applies to your life too. You have to allow yourself to be happy when you get praised at work or when your family or friends suggest a takeaway for dinner. Just because some people are self-made millionaires or are out saving lives, it doesn't diminish your own happiness. And equally on the other side of the coin, you have to allow yourself to be sad when you breakup with someone or even when the weathers bad on your birthday night out. Even though some people are living without food or clean water, you don't have to directly compare all the time.

The trick to maintaining a positive outlook on life is to remember that it's just that; life. It's not perfect, it's not scripted and you are in no way destined for, or owed, a happily ever after. You have to roll with the punches, make a point of celebrating the happy moments and allow yourself to be sad in the not-so-happy ones (but don't wallow). And for every bad thing in your life or in your year, remember that there were most likely plenty of good ones to counteract them too. 

Because it's true what they say that life is short. At my age (22), I'm positioned to think that I'm right at the start of everything. But even if I live to the disgustingly old age of 88 (!!!), I'm already a quarter of the way through! And it feels like it goes by faster the older you get. You know when you used to get 6 weeks off from school and it felt like the longest time in the world? Whereas now, 6 months can go by in the blink of an eye? Well we're not all going mad. 1 year to a 6 year old makes up 1/6 of their life to date, but 1 year to a 20 year old makes up only 1/20 of their life to date. As the proportion changes, so does your experience of reality. Meaning that time is only set to speed up the older you get!

Why waste time worrying about whether or not people may bitch about you or wondering where you went wrong in past relationships? If you're healthy, have family members or people who love you and food in your fridge then you're already wealthier than 75% of the rest of the world. Count your blessings, put things in to perspective and remember that time will keep moving forwards, no matter what you do. None of us ever know how long we have left and I don't plan on wasting a single second of it on being a negative nelly. What about you?