“Quentin knew he wasn’t happy. Why not? He had painstakingly assembled all the ingredients of happiness. He had performed all the necessary rituals, spoken the words, lit the candles, made the sacrifices. But happiness, like a disobedient spirit, refused to come. He couldn’t think what else to do”, writes Lev Grossman in the opening chapter of The Magicians. 

Side Bar: I’m NOT an avid fiction reader. The ratio is in the 1 to 100 range (fiction vs. non) … I prefer to be learning something while reading…always have. However, I generally let one book lead me to the next and Erin Loechner in Chasing Slow quoted The Magicians…so here we are. Visit Erin HERE. 

He continues, “All of it just confirmed his belief that his real life, the life he should be living, had been mislaid through some clerical error by the cosmic bureaucracy. This couldn’t be it. It had been diverted somewhere else, to somebody else, and he’d been issue this shitty substitute faux life instead.

Have you ever felt that way?

You have all the pieces in place for a “happy” life…but feel that maybe your definition of happy, and whomever’s definition of happy led you to this place, may be in conflict.

I know I have.

This morning while scrolling Instagram ,a GaryVee video popped up. If you don’t follow GaryVee, check out his stuff.  Always thought provoking and inspirational… if at times offensive.

Some people need to be offended to make a change though, don’t they?

The video was hawking the “perfect shoes for entrepreneurs”, whatever that means….sandals in my case I suppose. But the purpose of the video is irrelevant. In it, you hear Gary say, “most people aren’t doing what they want with their lives because they are worried about what someone else thinks”.

Have you found this to be true in your life?

Regardless of how hard we to try to avoid it. How independent we are. We care what people think. Our parents. Our peers. Our boss. It matters. But we shouldn’t let that dictate what we do with our lives. Not now. Not moving forward.

We can’t change the past, but we can certainly change the future. Ignoring what “they” think, and moving in the direction of our dreams, of our passions…that’s what will make your tomorrows better than your yesterdays. Nothing else.

And your definition of better is the only one that matters…

*Feature Photo – July 2017 – Laying in the middle of the road, burning the backs of my legs, on Route 66. Somewhere in 115 degree Arizona.