Hey,
It was an amazing year here.
It was the one in which I realised my life is one (for now?) and that I should and can and want to live it the way I feel.
To start, I had to stop thinking that I had to live abiding to the thought of keeping up with my past self, build my decisions on who I had been, on financial security, on what people expect you to do.
If you're doing a job you don't like only because you've always done it and because you need to earn/save more money, or because people or yourself think you should do it, that's not a good start on the path to happiness.
If you're sitting at your thousands-of-pounds-making office chair but you're unhappy, who knows if you're happiness could instead be found washing mugs in a coffee shop?
We are pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. If we sit in the wrong place, the whole puzzle will be affected. The right piece won't be able to get in the right place. We will be unhappy and the other pieces will be. So if you don't fit where you are, change your place. Do it for yourself and for the right piece and for the rest of the world.
Sometimes we think we do what we like but we don't really. Sometimes we know we do what we don't like but we do it nonetheless, lying to ourselves saying that that's the only way. But there are sooooo many ways! You will have to compromise, you will have to skip that trip to Paris you were thinking of doing, you might have to drink less beer to put your money in the pocket and buy tomorrow's lunch, you might have to eat out three times less per month. But if in the rest of your time you are actually walking towards your dream and actively working to achieve it, you will be happy just because of that.
I swear it's true. Because this is what I did in my 2016. Quitting my full time job, without the security of finding something else but with the passion driving my mind.
In times of need, your mind works cleverly. And if passion propels your thinking, your dream will be closer each day.
2016 was the first year of my life in which I have fully followed what I love and the rewards have been coming week by week. I have achieved goals I had tried to achieve for years, I have surrounded myself with likeminded people who have made me grow a great deal, I do every day what I mostly love.
It's not about luck. It's about how much you want it, how much you are ready to work your ass of for it. But it happens. Happiness happens. Success happens. Love happens. It happens together with struggle, but that's part of the game. A beautiful, exciting game.
I've tried to live each moment fully, to remember the past with wisdom and look at the future with hope.
But the present was (is) my main attention.
I've looked every day at the best things of the past 24 hours. I kept a list in a notebook. And every day I have found something to smile at.
Try in your 2017. And if you don't find anything in one particular day, look closer. Because there is. Opening your eyes and seeing colours is such a beautiful thing to start with and that happens every day. Imagine how many joyful things we overlook and give for granted. A great way to feel happier, is to accept that we actually have all we need. Happiness happens in every moment but we don't even notice.
It was a year full of struggles and choices and daunting moments, but I've fought to achieve my goals and ultimately happiness and I can say that I might not be where I'd like to be yet, but I'm happy nonetheless.
It all boils down to living your present with joy, love and authenticity.
Do the things that give you joy, be around people you love, be yourself completely.
It is that simple :)
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Thank you for having been part of me this year, I hope you'll be here in 2017 too, and I wish you happiness in any condition you will find yourself in.
Love,
Love,
Valerio
