So many people are just trudging through life these days. Just getting by and living with the day-to-day mundanity so many accept to be what life is all about. This isn’t a surprise, given the fairly rotten state of the world (certainly from a political perspective), and the challenges which so many are facing (financial and otherwise).

This recently got me thinking about my own life, particularly what I do (and when) to move away from that state. The things I do which I truly enjoy. The things I do which light a fire in my belly.

We all know what those fire in the belly moments are. They’re the times in life when we’re doing things which we enjoy more than just about anything else. The moments which bring us pure, unbridled, indisputable joy and pleasure. The moments we spend hours / days / weeks / months looking forward to. The moments when we feel we’re living our best life. Think about dogs – when we see one bounding over a beach, or chasing a ball, or lying in the sun, and we often say ‘that dog is living it’s best life’ – this refers to those equivalent moments for us as humans.

Some of them may not be feasible to address frequently if they cost serious money (i.e. lying on a beach in the Maldives…), though how many of life’s true fire in the belly moments cost serious money? Surely they consist of:

• The hobbies we love doing? Pastimes we spend our days (particularly our working days) dreaming of and looking forward to?
• Spending time with loved ones?
• Spending time with close friends?
• They may even (shock, horror…) occur in the workplace?

Have you thought about your fire in the belly moments in life recently? If not, please do. If we can easily identify them, we should aim to spend as much time as possible on them. We should aim to cut through the everyday misery, anger, and division which we’re constantly force-fed these days and concentrate more on the positives. I’d even go as far as to say we should make it our main mission in life to actively and vigorously seek out those moments. Identify them and spend as much time as possible doing them. There can surely be no better antidote to all the troubles of the world (which the media shove down our throats these days).

Here are a few fire in the belly examples of my own:

• Spending time with my immediate family. Any time together is life-affirming and precious.
• Losing myself in playing guitar for an hour or two.
• Losing myself in a great new book.
• Discovering a brilliant new song / album / artist.
• Catching any form of live music, even if it’s a pub band or a busker (though the smaller gigs really do excite me these days).
• Going for an early morning walk, when most other people are either still asleep or just waking up (I’m certainly a morning person).
• Finding something new to watch, read, or listen to, about my favourite subjects (music, comedy, horror, the 80’s / my childhood, inspirational, life-affirming stories from others).
• Finding a new podcast to listen to, on the above topics.
• Hearing stories from other people, in any format (more on this in an upcoming post…).
• Stumbling across things which take me straight back to my childhood. For instance, websites or social media pages dedicated to 80’s home computer games, music, comics & magazines I used to read, TV I used to love etc. The list could go on here!

Some of those examples may seem a little run-of-the-mill to others, though the fire in the belly moments can be just that. What might be run-of-the-mill to some will be hugely exciting and inspiring to others. Everything I’ve listed above brings me joy. Everything I’ve listed I spend hours looking forward to doing (particularly during those daydream moments which most of us surely have each day?). Everything I’ve listed greatly enhances my life. That is priceless.

Without wishing to sound morbid, life is short. Really short. And fragile. And precious. Please don’t settle for mediocrity. Please don’t settle for drifting / sleepwalking thought each day/week/month/year. Please spend as much of it as possible doing the things which light a fire in your belly. That’s truly living life to the fullest…

Best wishes and take care.

Mick