In our impatience to get to where we want to be, we can miss the experience of getting there. We have ideas of what we want and when we want them. We want it all, and we want it now.

What if you had it all now, though? What then?

What is it that you really want?

We think that when we get what we want we will be happy. We blame our discontentedness on not having enough things, enough money, enough time, enough of anything.

The truth is that happiness is found in the process, and bliss is found in the moments spent following your souls desire. This presence is what allows us to live a meaningful life.

The things we learn along the way, the people we meet, the experiences we have and how they shape us add real value to our lives. The prize at the end is just a bonus.

If you focus on the end, you will miss the middle. The middle is where all the best stuff happens. The middle can feel never ending, and tough, but it is the juiciest part of all. Relish each moment and have faith in the gift of time.

Time will pass, things will change, progress will be made and you will get there in the end.

Or you won’t.

It doesn’t really matter if you have savoured the ride though, does it?

When I started this blog it was with a commitment to myself. That commitment was to write an entry every single night (hence the name).

Last night I failed. Slumber took me before I could get the words out. Truth be told, I was struggling to find the words anyway, but sleep got me before I quit.

At least that’s what I told myself. That’s the excuse I used. That’s what got me off the hook.

This morning I woke up feeling frustrated with myself. I had failed. I had a simple task and I couldn’t even do that, so how could I possibly hope to do anything properly, ever?

Such a defeatist attitude, and also quite a convenient one. Why bother trying, just keep doing “enough”. Why bother setting yourself up to fail? Instead, how about just don’t even start?

It’s easy to fall into the trap of obstacles. If we can gain perspective and see the obstacles for the illusions they really are, we can begin to get somewhere better. Somewhere worthwhile. Somewhere we belong.

It’s getting past the obstacles that can be tricky, because believe it or not, YOU are the one who is responsible for creating the obstacles in the first place. You make excuses, you blame other people and other situations and you fail to take responsibility for the fact that you are more terrified of your own success than of your own failure.

If you fail, nothing changes. Your life looks the same. The old rules remain, and the patterns you know off by heart continue to rule your world. Failure is the safe bet.

But what if you succeed? What then?

Success brings enormous change, and a different aspect to a familiar world. It brings new challenges and new rules, and (scariest of all) it brings the unknown.

We must learn to own our failures and see them for what they are – lessons disguised in a riddle of experience.

If you feel you have “let yourself down”, get over it. It doesn’t matter unless you let it matter. A bad day or a failed task is not a worthy excuse to give up on yourself.

There is no worthy excuse.

Start over, over and over again. Keep going, regardless of the excuses you try to fabricate. Remember to embrace the obstacles and the challenges that come your way for they add colour to your story and force you to evolve.

At the end of the day, it won’t matter to anyone but you.

But you matter more than anyone else.

Make yourself proud and do what you need to do.

Do you ever ask yourself “why”?

We are automatically doing what we “should” do, buying what we are told, and eating what we’re fed. We have been trained to behave unconsciously, and in doing so we are allowing ourselves to be led through our lives.

We have forgotten how to take control of our experience because somewhere along the line we stopped making choices. As children, it was easy. As children, there was no other way.

It is within you to decide what you want. Make a commitment to yourself to start questioning your actions, thoughts and behaviours and let your true self, the part of you that knows best, be heard once more.

Looking back on the evolution of our species, it’s become rather clear that the longer we are here on this earth, the more messed up we are becoming.

Think of the things we do as humans and take a really good look at just how ridiculous we have become.

We will text someone who is sitting in the same room as us. We will phone someone who is in the same building. We do anything we can to take shortcuts. We go from sitting in our cars to sitting at a desk to sitting in our cars to sitting in front of the television. We thrive on laziness and inactivity. As we sit, we create ways to move less, and then we rush to the gym to so we can pay someone to make us move for an hour.

Every week, we count down until the weekend and then lose all self control for two days. We abuse our bodies and waste our days off only to suffer from Sundayitis at the thought of starting the cycle all over again on Monday. We go to jobs we hate to earn money we need to pay mortgages on houses we can’t afford that are full of things we don’t want.

We fuel our bodies with bad food. We poison ourselves knowingly. We hide away from the sun, and inactivity and stagnation have become the norm. We don’t give our bodies enough rest and we ignore its requests. When it “fails” us, we resent it, and when it’s sick we say “poor me” as if we played no role in its demise.

Movements that are unnatural have shaped our bodies in damaging ways, creating difficulty in even the most simple task. Movements that are natural feel awkward and impossible, and slowly but surely our human form is becoming less functional.

Lives are wasted in front of screens. Screens have taken our attention and put us in a trance. We sit in a spell, and we expose our children to the same blue magic. These screens change our sleep patterns and mess with our hormones. These screens isolate us and interfere with our interpersonal growth. These screens trick us into thinking we belong, to the point where we are have become addicted to them.

We have lost our way, in so many ways. We are forgetting what makes us human, what makes us special.

We are designed to move, in amazing ways. We are designed to play, to run, to climb and to stretch. Sitting was never part of the plan.

We are designed to interact. We are designed to connect and problem solve. We are designed to help each other.

We are designed to last for a long time, in much better health than what we see today. Collectively, we are a physical mess. What we are able to do is breathtaking. What we are doing is terrifying.

We are crippling ourselves through inactivity and poor choices, and we are too unhealthy and out of touch to follow the part of us that knows best – our intuition.

We need to start listening to our bodies again. We need to feel our way through the world. We need to allow ourselves the opportunity to be better than we are today and to embrace the gifts of being a human being.

As far as we know, we get one shot. You owe it to yourself to have the time of your life.

No one knows what tomorrow brings. We spend so much time thinking about what has already happened and what could happen and we miss what is happening. This moment is here for a split second in time. Our lives are made up of one second after another. Each second is just as important as the one that came before it and the one that will follow.

How many moments are ruled by detachment? How much energy is wasted on worry?

What is worry anyway, other than a trick of the mind? We worry so much that it has become a hobby. It has become a habit to fill a void.

The void we are attempting to fill has a very special, and essential, purpose. It is a hibernation space for dreams and hopes. It is a pocket of potential creation. It is the part of your mind where possibilities are hatched.

The issue is that we are trying to satisfy this void by filling it with the wrong things.

Imagine if you could take the energy you use for worry and pour it into your dreams. Imagine if instead of trying to control the “if onlys” and “what ifs” you could nurture the “whens” and “I wills”.

We have infinite potential, but our attention is out of focus.

Spending precious energy concerned with events that are out of control is a waste of a very precious gift. We have no problems imagining the worst things that could happen, yet we find endless difficulty manifesting the best outcomes.

Realise, right now, that your attention dictates your direction, and your direction guides your focus. Get clear on what you want, and believe in the process. What you believe, you will create.

It’s time to choose the experience you desire.

Sometimes the world feels like it’s shouting. Everyone wants to be seen, everyone wants to be heard. There’s a desperation to leave a mark. There’s a desperation to be remembered.

We want to feel like we matter, like we make a difference and count for something. The trouble is that most of us are looking too far past ourselves for meaning. Nothing matters, and at the same time everything matters. The trick is working out what is nothing and what is everything.

Too much energy is put into what others might think and not enough energy is focused on the only opinion that really matters. Instead of concerning yourself with others, perhaps you could find out what you think of yourself.

Truly.

Honestly.

Look at it all, because you are the only one that can see it all. Be kind to yourself, but also be real.

And when the time comes for you to talk, say something worth listening to. Leave your mark in your own way and allow space for others to do the same.