Life is a roller coaster, stop and take a picture

Life is a series of roller coaster rides.

One day we're up, another we're down.

Years ago my therapist recommended a practice that my wife and I have tried implementing. When something good happens we celebrate the event. Sometimes it's in the smallest way, like getting ice cream with the family, or going out to eat. The acknowledgement of the good is a way to memorialize a moment in our lives that we appreciate.

Maybe you've just had the coolest thing ever happen this week, something you've built towards for years. If you don't celebrate it, and instead look to the next future goal, then you're only living your life outside the present. Instead, take  time to drag out that moment, to appreciate it with those you love, and cement it in your mind.

You'll thank yourself later.

It's easy to get to the highs and look for further upward momentum, not appreciating the beautiful view we could be experiencing by just taking a moment to look around.

When the good things happen we have the opportunity to just be, to take it all in, to make that moment our reality.

Instead it's far too easy to keep looking forward, never satisfied, always pushing, never grateful for what we have.

We compare against others. Those with more, those further along at a younger age.

Comparison is so easy, more so than ever before in the history of the world.

Just look online for 10 seconds and you're immediately inundated with the perceived perfection of everyone else's lives, in stark contrast with the messy chaos of our own.

Then there's the lows.

We come to the bottom and expect to stay there. We rationalize the view that the world is out to get us, that we deserve to be there, that we have no worth or value.

We blame others, blame ourselves, and view the situation as permanent. When in reality the world is far more chaotic and random. There is often no reason for something going wrong, or even right.

True, we have some control over things. Our attitude, how we tackle and approach projects, the energy we bring to a thing, all these help to move ourselves forward or backward.

But there's also elements that are just straight up out of our control. To pretend otherwise can bring us to the brink of disaster when our perceived ability to manipulate the world around us eventually breaks.

We have an opportunity, then, to try our best, move forward, and appreciate each moment for what it brings.

It's easy to live either in the past or in the future.

Living in the present is freaking hard.

To celebrate wins, to appreciate losses for their learning opportunities — or simply the realization that randomness occurred, that is the real challenge.

So do we not bother trying?

Do we just lay down and curl up to see our lives come to an inevitable demise?

No.

Though we should push back against hustle culture, comparison culture, anything that tells us we're worse than others and should try harder, there is another way through it.

Each day we can ask ourselves what we want to do with the gift of life we have in that moment, and then proceed forward in full force to tackle whatever it is we imagine.

That's not done for the sake of showing off, looking better than anyone else, or to chase some far off impossible goal. Rather it's an opportunity to push ourselves to the limits of what we think possible — and we do this to live, to be, to know what it means to draw breath.

The most alive I've ever felt was when I was uncomfortable, just beyond the limit of what I knew to be possible, incredibly challenged, and feeling like I was barely staying afloat. Those moments, those sensations of sheer terror, not quite knowing if we'll make it — they are sensational, and worth it. And they don't come along too often. When we sense the possibility of pushing ourselves, truly finding our limits, we should go for it.

Does that mean every moment should be an adrenaline rush? Not quite, but sometimes pushing ourselves beyond what we think isn't quite possible is what we need to fully feel alive, to have the sense that we're on this planet for this exact moment and possibility.

Then, take those highs, appreciate them, celebrate them, and understand that more highs and lows will follow. This is the rhythm of life, and it's a beautiful life worth living.