Are you grateful for today?

Three years ago I had a dream. I wanted to study towards a postgraduate qualification so much that it’s all I focused on. I worked, fought for, tried, cried, gave up on and got back to working on it to make it a reality. And I did. But as soon as I started school, I started looking forward to graduation, getting a job, ‘finally starting to live’ and all these other things I wanted to do. I graduated earlier this year, and although I am grateful and proud of myself for accomplishing this dream, I noticed that I was not as excited about it as I imagined I would be. I found another goal that overshadowed and diluted the meaning of accomplishing the old one.

Most times we tend to think that the next goal, job, travel destination will be the thing that changes our lives and makes us happy. We are always chasing something, which may sometimes get in the way of us being satisfied with life as it is. We never really let ourselves to experience the beauty of life and our achievements today, because we are always expecting something better to be coming. It is exciting to hope and have dreams for the future, but should they really steal the joy of what we have now?

Ambitious people live by goals. Which is great, because goals keep you focused. But one should not let life to be defined in the end, by hopeful and exciting promises. Do not allow your accomplishments to be just another meaningless tick on a to-do list, because you are too focused ahead to look around. While you look forward to an exciting future, be grateful for today and celebrate where you are now. You deserve to celebrate. It will not steal the focus from the future, I promise.