So i read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield a few days ago(highly recommended). One of the most thought-provoking things in the book is this concept of the The Unlived Life.
Specifically, this is what Pressfield says:
Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us.
The Unlived Life is the life that you want to live. It's the book you want to write, the album you want to make, the company you want to start. It's everything you want to do but because of some reason, haven't done( and as the author explains in the book, a lot of those problems that stop you are self-inflicted).
Most people, regardless of how good they have it in life, have an Unlived Life. In fact, when we ask someone what their unfulfilled dreams are, and if that person says they don't have any, we think they're lying.
Most of the reasons that stop us from living the Unlived Life are created by ourselves
Take posting on Steemit for example. I've been wanting to post for a while now. I want to continue with the Linux tutorials. But i've been putting it off, because i'm not too excited about the content that has to be covered in the next part. So i just stopped posting at all.
But then, as I'm writing this, I'm getting so many ideas for future posts.
Your brain will invent all kinds of reasons, to prevent you from stopping doing those things that you want to do.
It's amazing isn't it? The same brain that created all those wonderful ideas will now stop you from ever making those ideas real.
The most important thing to do if you want to live the Unlived Life, is to start
When you're thinking about doing something, you often put it off for sometime, and then you waive it off by inventing an often-irrational reason. That's one of the most important things to remember in life:
You are a genius when it comes to inventing a reason for not starting something. Quite often, getting yourself to starting to do something is actually harder than doing the actual thing.
In a lot of cases, you will come up with reasons to not do something that are in context, totally logical, totally rational. But ultimately, they will take you away from doing what you truly want to do. So it's important to be aware of this, so when it does happen, you can stop it from taking control of your life.
The Unlived Life will eventually lead to frustration in all aspects of life
But if you don't do those things that you truly want to do, you will eventually lose either the physical ability, or the time to do them. The pain of regret will replace the pain of starting that thing.
Now, i'm not some 80 year old who has experienced all that life has to offer. But based on what i have seen, I can tell you that the pain of regret is much greater than the pain experienced while starting something.
So don't waste your time on the mundane stuff. Do the things that you truly want to spend your time doing.