“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find
that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it
as well.”
This quotation, by Diane Ackerman, a highly acclaimed American poet, essayist and
field naturalist, whose name and work is recognized worldwide, speaks clearly
and unambiguously to the great importance of living a full life. The statement was made while she was lamenting
the current behavior by so many, of being content to merely exist in the world,
just going through the motions, and stumbling along through life like programmed
robots, and in so doing, ignoring the very purpose and reason for living.
Far
too often, we find ourselves searching for reasons to justify not doing what we
ought to have been doing, or even holding back in our efforts, when instead we
should have been making full use of the opportunities available to us. Many of
us will rather spend the time and effort looking for ways and reasons to
justify our inactions, and if necessary, be more than willing to blame circumstances
or people rather than accept responsibility and find the truth. And we will continue
to do this over and over, even when in our hearts we recognize that by adopting
this action we are cheating ourselves from getting the most we can from the
life we have.
We
tend to confuse having a ‘busy’ life,
stuffed full with endless schedules of routine activities, assignments, and
trying to satisfy other people’s expectations, as tantamount to having a ‘full’ life. So many of us labor under the assumption that to
live a full life equates always to living a life of continuous joy and
happiness, free from pain and disappointments, and we fail to recognize that those
situations where courage and strength of spirit is needed to cope with pain and
suffering, are equally necessary to fulfill the task of living. People fail to
acknowledge that living a full and satisfying life can only flourish in the
presence of extremes, and that a good life should never be measured by quantity
but always by quality.
Living
a full and satisfying life can only be truly acquired by the slow process of
self-exploration, by finding meaning in challenges, by facing and overcoming
obstacles and by pushing past one’s comfort zone. Doing things to impress or to
please others may ensure acceptance; and even lead to fame, popularity and often
to success. But this reaction can never be as rewarding as the deep feeling of fulfillment
and of satisfaction that comes from truly living life to the fullest on one’s
own terms. Indeed, in retrospect, anything
we do in our lives can only have meaning when it is done on our terms, and not
on those of anyone else, or for any other reason. This is the hallmark of living a true and full life; nothing else
matters!
Without
doubt, moving forward is the essence of a full and worthy life and at all
times, one’s personal expectation is all that will truly matter. What others
may do or think or expect should be of little meaningful consequence, since it
is of utmost importance that everything done must satisfy a deep need and
provide personal fulfillment to the individual. Indeed a good life will only be
appreciated when there is a purpose and a meaning. Sir Winston Churchill, one of Great Britain’s greatest statesmen,
who led the country to victory in the 2nd World War, very clearly
implied this when he declared:
“It should not be enough to have
lived.
We should be determined to live for
something.”
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