What Does it Mean to Enjoy Life?

What does it mean to enjoy life? Enjoying life varies from one person to another. There are countless definitions of what it means to enjoy life.

To some, it may be to live carelessly with no sense of responsibility, partying all day and night, doing all the wrong things. This post is about enjoying life responsibly.

Life is beautiful and should be enjoyed. But, unfortunately, not every day is rosy. Some days seem perfect, others just-good days, and some too bad.

Is it possible to enjoy all the seasons of life—the good and the bad?

The bad experiences account for 10%. How you react to that 10% accounts for 90%. So you can see that it is possible to enjoy all of life’s seasons because you have 90% control. Isn’t that great?

Life is a journey. To enjoy this life journey, you need to find pleasure each step of the way. So take it one step at a time and enjoy the present, not worrying about the past or the future.

Enjoying life is a conscious decision that one has to make. The following tips can guide you as you make that decision:

1. Live your life one step at a time

Imagine yourself climbing a flight of steps. Usually, you would not concern yourself with those you have already climbed or those you are yet to climb. Instead, you only focus on the one you are currently stepping on.

Imagine if you constantly stopped to count the steps behind you and the ones ahead of you as you climbed. That would be pretty stressful, wouldn’t it?

In the same way, stress will quickly seep in and engulf you if you constantly focus on the past and all your regrets. Constantly worrying about your future and the multitude of things you have to do is equally stressful.

Take an interest in and enjoy what is around you every step of the way. Enjoy your present life, one step at a time, one task at a time, and one day at a time.

2. Find a way to master your reactions to negative situations

 Life is full of changes. Flow with the change rather than resist it. Resisting change will only frustrate you. Have you ever watched how water moves? When water finds an obstacle on its path, it finds a way to go past it and keep flowing.

In life, you need to keep moving no matter what. Sometimes while driving, it starts raining very heavily, and it becomes a challenge to see what is ahead even with the lights on. Occasionally, I get tempted to park the car by the roadside and wait for the rain to subside. However, I always find the sun shining just a few miles ahead when I ignore that temptation to stop and keep going.

In the same way, you, too, will meet a better patch when you keep moving, even amidst challenging situations.

 You can master your reactions to bad situations by doing some of the following:

• Find some songs that encourage and uplift you.
• Go to a place where you find peace and solace.
• Find one person you can talk to that gives you positive vibes.
• Trust that God has a good plan for you.
• Remember that no situation is permanent.
• Find the lessons in that situation.
• Take a walk and enjoy your environment.

Do something that makes you happy, even if it is just taking that cup of hot chocolate.

Look for the good in each bad situation. You may still get to enjoy your life even when, at that particular moment, not everything is going well. Remember, every dark cloud has a silver lining. So look for the silver lining in the dark situation.

Practice, every day, how to prevent the bad situations you find yourself in (the 10% ) from affecting your reactions (the 90%). It will become standard for you not to be put down by the bad situations around you with time. When you get to that point, you will see that you enjoy your life more.

3. Enjoy your wealth and possessions

Some people like to work non-stop. But, unfortunately, work never ends. So it would be best if you had a healthy work-life balance. You need to enjoy life by enjoying your work.

Take time to enjoy your wealth and possessions. Enjoy your home. Work can get very demanding that some people only go to their homes to sleep, freshen up, and return to their workplaces for the rest of the hours. When will they ever get to enjoy those excellent seats, or that lovely garden, or even that lovely family?

Make time to go out alone or with your family, enjoy a different cooking style, enjoy the park, watch a movie, watch a match, go to a beauty parlor, or do anything that you like to do.

Please create your list of fun activities and be sure to enjoy them.

4. Do not be easily angered

Everybody gets angry at some point. You do not have to beat yourself up for getting angry because it is normal.

However, if you are easily angered, you need to find ways to control that. When you get angry at every slight provocation, it means that you will constantly be sad. How can you enjoy life when you always focus on one pain point after another?

You can do the following to keep calm and collected when angry:

• Learn to control your anger. Get professional help if you need it.
• Keep some water with you. Drink it whenever you feel angry.
• Walk away to a more peaceful place till you cool off.
• Learn to pick your battles and mind your business as much as possible.
• Forgive as fast as you can. You may take some more time to forget the experience, but you can choose to forgive.
• Ask for forgiveness if you were in the wrong. Sometimes you have to ask for forgiveness even when you are not the one in the wrong. This habit is encouraged, especially in marriage relationships. You could try this and see how it works for you.
• Leave revenge for God. The chances are that He will do a better job than you. So instead, focus your energy on doing good to yourself and others—even when they don’t deserve it.

5. Take care of your health

One of the most important things you can do for yourself is take care of your health. Enjoying life begins with taking care of your health. There is not much we can enjoy when we feel sick or are bedridden.

Some things you can do to care for your health are:

• Eat healthy food.
• Exercise regularly.
• Have enough sleep.
• Laugh often. Laughter is medicine.
• Do not abuse drugs.
• Enjoy some sunshine whenever you can. If you are blessed to live in the regions where there is sunshine all year round, make sure to enjoy it every day.
• Periodically take a health check for a timely diagnosis of any medical condition you may have. This will help you to take the necessary actions before your health deteriorates.
• As far as it is possible, live at peace with everyone. It is suitable for your heart, and a peaceful person enjoys life more.

6. Help the poor and oppressed

You may not consider yourself wealthy or privileged, but in life, there are people all over the world that are less privileged than you. Please find some of those and bring some joy to their lives. There is more joy in giving than in receiving.

Your help does not necessarily have to be financial. Of course, it is good to give money, but you can also share your time, food, clothing, encouragement, or anything that can be a blessing to another person. Life will be more fulfilling if you make a habit of bringing smiles to others. You will enjoy life.

7. Do what you love

Life is more enjoyable if you are doing what you love to do. Unfortunately, many people find themselves stuck doing work that they hate, year on year.

The way out of doing what you hate is to search for something you are passionate about. You would happily do your passion even when you worked for free.

When you find what you love to do, learn how to use that passion to earn an income. It may take you a while—months or even years—to begin earning from your passion. Nevertheless, you must continually work at it to see results.

It is important to note that you shouldn’t leave your current job if you do not have alternative sources of income.

8. Think more positive thoughts

Your thoughts largely reflect your life. Have positive thoughts about yourself and others. Think about whatever is dignified, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.

Believe that you are beautiful or handsome, likable, successful, hardworking, and you will begin to see those traits in you. Besides, you were wonderfully and fearfully made by God.

To enjoy life is to love yourself first (not selfish). Only then will you be able to love others truly.

9. Appreciate the stage you are at in life without envying others

“Be the best of yourself at every stage of your life. Celebrate your friends that succeed at a stage. Don’t be envious of them because your own time will come. Everybody’s timing is different. If you follow your own time, you will be successful in your own time, and your success will last for a lifetime.” —(Unknown).

Pick lessons from the people you admire but do not let their achievements be a source of discouragement. You may know only about their success stories, but you don’t see how they suffered to get there.

Appreciate your place in life. Positively work at getting better while at your current stage, and you will enjoy your life.

10. Respect authority

Respect has to be earned, right? We do not always appreciate all leadership. Some of these leaders can be terrible and make you hate life.

Submitting to authority saves heartaches and headaches even if you don’t like them. I understand that this can be difficult sometimes. I have found myself praying for a change in leadership many times.

Enjoying life means that you choose to respect all leadership for the sake of your wellbeing. Find some things that you like about that leadership and focus on those. Besides, all leadership is ordained by God. We need to trust that He has our best interests at heart.

Please share this article for more people to enjoy life.