Do you ever feel like life is passing you by? Perhaps you spend most of the day working at a job or raising children. Then after your work is done, your free time is spent doing chores and meeting the needs of others. And by the end of the day, you realize that little of your time was spent doing the things that you enjoy or that are meaningful to you. If that is where you are right now, it is time to reinvigorate your life.
Realize that having a busy life isn’t the same as having a meaningful life. Lots of people in our society are addicted to being “busy.” For instance, some mothers love to busy themselves by chauffeuring their children from one activity to another. Other folks love to busy themselves with their jobs.
The problem is that being busy is simply a distraction. We choose busyness to avoid the fact that we are no longer growing personally and intellectually.
You weren’t meant to simply be busy. Your routine shouldn’t be to get up in the morning, meet your basic work and family responsibilities during the day, watch television in the evening, and then go to bed at night. That is bare minimum living. You were made for more than that.
Below are some ways to reinvigorate your life. Consider how you might follow these approaches to make each of your days more meaningful and enjoyable.
Take Back Your Free Time
The main reason why we stop growing personally is that we don’t have the time to pursue the activities that would allow us to better ourselves. Or rather, we do have time, but other people hijack our time. We all know folks who continually ask us to do things for them or with them. As a result, our free time to pursue our own interests goes out the window.
I, fortunately, am blessed with a husband who never makes demands on me or my time. If I take the time to do things for him or with him, he is delighted, but he never expects anything from me. His independence allows me to pursue the things that interest me – writing, studying foreign languages, reading, playing my flute, etc.
But there have been times in my life when I have had to deal with people who took up my time with their needs, personal issues and dramas. As a result, I had no time to pursue my own personal growth. That is no way to live life.
So, if you want to reinvigorate your life, stop letting other people hijack your time. Treat your time as what it is – valuable! If you spend your time doing those things that you enjoy and have meaning for you, your life will be so much better.
Don’t Accept Stagnating in Life
When we are young, it is easy to grow and achieve. Youth is made for that. As children, we go to school, and with each passing year we learn new things. If we come from an advantaged background, our parents may pay for us to take music lessons or learn a sport. This lifestyle of learning gives our younger years a certain energy and momentum.
But once we leave behind the schooling chapter of our lives, and we start the work and family chapter, we often can stagnate. Our desire to grow personally often ends up taking a backseat to real life responsibilities. And then we stop learning. We stop improving ourselves. And suddenly it feels like life is passing us by.
Realize that most midlife crises are not the result of people being concerned about getting older. Rather, people have midlife crises because they realize that they have become boring. They are no longer interesting because they have stopped learning and developing new skills.
So, instead of attacking the issue (the fact that they are stagnating), they mistakenly look for quick fixes for that frustration – extra-marital affairs, excessive shopping, extreme adventures, etc. But none of that fixes the underlying problem, which is that they have stopped growing and improving themselves.
So, part of reinvigorating your life is taking a hard look at yourself. Ask yourself, “Am I stagnating? Have I become boring? Am I learning anything new, or am I just coasting through life?” If you are living life on autopilot, now is the time to take on a new challenge.
Reinvigorate Your Life by Taking on A New Challenge
One terrific way to reinvigorate your life is to pick one accomplishment that you would like to achieve over the next twelve months. For example, you might consider learning a new language. Then, when your year of study is done, you might reward yourself with a trip to a place where they speak that language.
Or you might learn to play a new instrument, or resume playing an instrument that you haven’t played in years. If so, consider spending the next year taking music lessons. Then treat yourself to a concert with a musician who plays that instrument.
Maybe you have a special interest that you want to learn more about. Over the course of a year, you might study to become an expert in that subject. For instance, many people are history buffs. They pick a particular period of history and delve into it fully.
Perhaps you find the U.S. Revolutionary War to be fascinating. If so, read all the books that you can get your hands on which focus on this period. Watch the best films and documentaries about it. Then treat yourself to a vacation at some of the most important Revolutionary War sites. I like refer to this approach as “adult learning” – learning for the joy of the knowing more about a subject versus learning for a grade.
This week, take some time to consider how you might reinvigorate your life. To do so, take a break from watching television. Stop texting, tweeting, posting, and surfing. Stop letting life pass you by while you engage in pointless activities. Instead, grab life by the horns. Decide to reinvigorate your life by learning new things or new skills. If you do, you will be amazed by how much happier you become.
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