When I was a kid, all I wanted to be was a millionaire.
Now that I am a millionaire, all I want is to be a carefree kid.
Right after I lost weight and had abs, I felt too skinny, and all I wanted was to add muscle.
Now that I’ve added muscle and am the strongest that I’ve ever been in my life, all I think about is how much I miss my abs.
Before I had a daughter, all I wanted was kids.
I wouldn’t trade my daughter for anything, but I often miss the times when I was alone.
When I had a small business, all I wanted was to have a big business.
Now that I’m growing a big business, I miss the days when it was small.
When I lived in Cleveland, all I wanted was to get out.
Now that I live in and love Austin, I miss Cleveland.
When Esther was a baby and screaming in the middle of the night, I just wanted her to get older.
Now that she’s older, even though we are way more connected and she is way more fun, I sometimes miss when she was a baby.
I realized the other day that there are always two sides to everything: there are the problems that you see in everything… and there are the positives of the *exact* same situation that someone else wants.
We feel the problems.
We miss the positives.
We rarely – if ever – see the positives while we are in them, unless we pause to enjoy them.
We only reflect upon them, which creates a sense of longing.
A dear friend of mine lost her little brother this week. My heart breaks for her. I have multiple times found myself crying for her, even though I barely knew the brother.
It made me realize that there are things in my life that I overlook… but if it was taken away, it would be all that I longed for.
I don’t spend my days thinking about my brother… but if he was taken away from me, he would be all that I wanted back in my life.
The times that Esther is screaming… if she was taken away from me, all I would want is to comfort a screaming baby.
The long work days as we build something new… if I was working a job, I would long for the idea of building something for myself.
The extra flab on my bottom abs while I bulk up… if I was hungry, I would do anything to have “a little extra fat” in exchange for eating food.
The beautiful curse about being human is that we are wired to look for problems that need to be fixed…
That doesn’t make us happy. It makes us effing miserable. But it does make us grow and survive.
We have to consciously pause to think about what is great.
But you get to control whatever you focus on… and I can promise you that someone longs for what you live… they long for the little moments that we all ignore.
Even though, when they had it, they would long for something else.
No matter where you are, what you are up to, or what is going on, you have so much to be thankful for and to appreciate.
These ARE the “good ol’ days.”
