LOLALive Openly, Love Always is a declaration I made to myself a few years ago. Like so many times before, I found myself doubtful and hopeful at the same time. The former because I’ve had no shortage of disappointments, big and small, in my personal and professional lives. Circumstances that I could carry with me all the time and find a reason to be sad about. I’ve learned that it is easy to revert to the things you know, and I knew how to be sad very well. How to dwell in it. How to let it ruin my birthday, a 3 day weekend, a holiday occasion. I made it an artform.
The latter because somehow, through everything, my little heart keeps going – full of hope and love. A corner of my heart just won’t give up. It yearns to see the rainbow after a storm, the progress after a setback – a love for life that no amount of sadness could diminish.
Most “change your mindset, change your life” books, podcasts, coaches usually start with one simple notion: What life do you want to have? When you figure this out, you can change your life to match your dream. I never really answer this question because there are so many possibilities in life, each as enticing as the next. At times, life seems like a Mad Libs – fill in the blanks and one story can be vastly different than the next. The more I ask “How do i want my life to look”, the more i get further away from forming a discernable answer. And so one day, sitting on a bench by the beach, I asked myself simply – despite any outcome, what kind of life would fulfill me? The answer: I want to live with my heart and mind as wide open as the ocean and I want to live to do it with love in my heart – for life, for others and for myself. Thus Live Openly, Love Always (or LOLA as I like to call it) was born.
LOLA is:
Finding the lesson in every failure and success
Forgiving others, even only internally, acknowledging that they are as much human (and therefore prone to mistakes) as you are
Spending an afternoon learning something you have absolutely no prior experience with if only to expand your knowledge or skillset
Choosing to bond with others over what you do have in common rather than letting your differences divide you
Giving a loved one a unique gift that only they could appreciate simply because you know the joy that it will bring them
Finding wonder in small everyday things instead of reserving excitement for weekends, vacation or special occasions
Letting your heart lead your entire day from time to time
Pushing yourself to get out of your comfort zone and acknowledging how well you did (or didn’t) do while being out of your element
Always having at least one goal, big or small, that motivates you
The list, I suspect, will grow over time. But for now, I have a lot to work with.
Photo by Miguel Constantin Montes from Pexels