This. Is. Your. Life.

I bought this poster today. 

From Here

I'm sure you've seen it. It's been passed around on Facebook and Pinterest totaling some 50 million views. But I love it. These are the exact rules I try (and sometimes fail at) to live my life by. And in 3-5 business days, it will be on the wall of my bedroom where I can wake up every day and be inspired by its words.

I decided to buy it at the perfect time too. I was driving to work this morning, as I do every Monday - Friday at the same time week in and week out, only today I was more excited than I have been in a long time. Not about anything in particular...just life. I was simply happy and looking forward to some potential opportunities that (fingers crossed) may come up in the next few weeks. Does that ever happen to you? That wave of positive energy bubbling up inside you? Well, with this feeling bursting through me, I realized that

I'm exactly where I need to be right now. 
I've been pushing for these new opportunities and changes to happen right away. I didn't want to wait anymore. I needed everything to happen in my time. I should know better by now, that life just doesn't work that way. My life is full of experiences that happened in the right timing for me, but not necessarily the timing I had hoped for. I've had to learn to be patient and accept that things have and will fall into place just as they should. To finally accept and enjoy where I am right now was liberating. This wave of giddiness rolled through me leaving no room for all of the pressure I've been putting on myself.

Stumbling upon that poster brought everything full circle for me and I fell into this perfect balance of energetic happiness and utter peace inside. Then it dawned on me, these feelings were coming from a place perfectly described in one line on the poster:

"If you don't like something, change it." For a long time, I've wanted to change my circumstances and my environment, but I never took the steps to do anything about it. I only complained about what I wasn't happy with. Recently, though, I've taken the steps necessary to change those circumstances. There's something empowering and invigorating about taking control of your own life. Doing whatever necessary to change what you don't like. I'm doing everything in my power to change what I don't like. And when I feel like I've done all I can, I wait...for that time when the potential opportunity is actualized. Sometimes, that time never comes, but what does come is the realization that not getting something I thought I wanted only left room for what I really needed. Something better than I could have imagined.

I see people around me who are still in the complaining phase. They aren't willing, aren't ready, or don't know what the next step is to change what they don't like. I hope I can set the example and inspire even just one person to take one step today.
After all, what we make of this life is our choice.