I am living the dream – a gratitude List

I am indeed living the dream:
Just a few hundred years ago even the richest king couldn’t imagine having the luxuries that your average person in a 1st world country enjoys.

• I can communicate instantly in HD with anyone, anywhere on the planet.
• I can travel across the country to places I want to visit in extreme speed and comfort.
• I can eat a huge variety strange foods from across the globe, instantly at hand.
• I shrug of ailments that once would have been fatal.
• I have instant access to the knowledge to learn any skill I choose.
• In seconds I can find and read the thoughts and insights of every genius throughout history that has chosen to set them down in writing.

Nice cars, a good house, the feel good factor from new clothes:
There’s nothing wrong with enjoying nice things…
So long as you don’t take them for granted.

The issue is spending money on objects, just to play the status game.
The issue is building your identify around things instead of actions.
The issue is tying your self-worth to what others think about your things.

If the cause is not knowing when you have enough,
And the problem is feeling unfullfilled because you want things you can’t have,
The solution is learning to want the things you already have.

So I’m taking note of things I appreciate and enjoy in my life.
And it does genuinely make you happier if applied over time.

Some are expensive, others free.
Some are bought, others earned.
Some are obtained, others experienced.
Some are simple, some obscure.

I’ll return and update this periodically…

1. Leaving my house and going straight into a walk every morning in the field near my house
2. I don’t have to face traffic driving into work anymore
3. Deep bass at top volume on my Harmon Kardon speaker
4. Chilling in my beanbag with my doggo and book
5. A bit of cheeky Nickelback or Avril Lavigne on a Friday
6. Blasting down B roads in the mini with the top down and the wind in whatever hair I have left.
7. The hair I have left for the next 15 years or so.
8. Playing games on Ultra settings ( long live the pc masterrace )
9. Step out of my garden office, into the smell of rain
10. Learning to drive a digger and digging your own pond. ULTIMATE POWAAAA!
11. Winding down the office by myself with some reading and journalling
12. The tactile feel of my focus timer
13. Doing donuts in the Scooby in the snow
14. Clive always comes for a cuddle on the toilet
15. Meditating on my beanbag, total peace.
16. Dusk clouds at sunset, observed from the swing seat
17. Blasting round a trackday in the mini, on the edge of grip and fear.
18. Bare feet in the garden
19. Eating raspberries fresh off the bush from your own garden
20. little sparrows dipping in the pond just meters from where I work
21. Warm bare feet on my new deck outside the office
22. Picking and eat tangy tomatoes from the vine in the lean-to.
23. When Immy makes me lunch.
24. Intense pride for everything we’ve achieved in the last few years on the house and garden. I’m thinking about my future kids and telling them “you’re mum and I built everything the light touches”
25. Watching birds just a few feet away, feeding on nuts on the deck
26. The awe from staring at the infinity of the starscape
27. Fin’s little mews and sighs as he feeds.
28. Sitting on my deck at night, cuddling Clive listening to the fountain
29. Smell of the rain
30. Drips from office roof into Japanese pond
31. Braving the downpour with good gloves, hats, jackets and equipment. The right gear for the right weather.
32. The satisfaction of truly changing a client’s business in just one call. The true value that comes from deep knowledge, hard-earned
33. …