Living Life to the Fullest

Live life to the fullest. Carpe diem ("Seize the day"). YOLO (you only live once).

A few weeks ago, my surgeon encouraged me to live life to the fullest with the time I have. And this is something I agree with. But come to think of it, what does this entail? How does one live life to the fullest?  

What does it mean to live life to the fullest?

One of the concepts I'm hooked to is that, at the end of the day, I want my actions to be intentional and not leave room for regret. But is that putting a lot of pressure on myself? I mean... as a fallen person, there will be regrets. It doesn't help that I tend to be very hard on myself when I perceive I'm not living up to standards (whose standards? That's another big question). 

I catch myself feeling the urgency and intensity of doing things, maybe even risking myself when I think of the word "fullest". It may be the semantics of it but it does have an extreme connotation that is subconscious to me. Like the YOLO movement which encourages people to embrace behaviours even if they carry inherent risks. So in a sense, to live rather impulsively with no/less considerations for consequences. 

Is that how I want to live my life though? That would be a contradiction to my goal in being intentional and purposeful if I were to act impulsively and taking shortsighted risks.

In my previous posts, I've been pondering about giving myself space. Maybe I need to allot space, flexibility and self-compassion here too - for regrets... for failures... for missed opportunities - when they occur.

It's dawning on me that to "live life to the fullest" seems like a rather vague value. Maybe I need to break down this broad term.

How do I envision myself living life to the fullest?
What do I see myself doing, and being?
What are the flexible, life-enhancing behaviours I can engage in, both great and small?
How do I want to treat myself?
How do I want to treat others and the world around me?
What is God inviting me to do? What is God's calling for me?

I'm going to give myself time to think about this, while allowing myself to breathe and to slow down but I'm thankful I've got these questions out of my system. And I'll come back to it when I'm ready.

But something I'm taking away from this rambling is flexibility and self-compassion. (I realize it's partly answering the "how do I want to treat myself?" question). Again, it ties in to giving space to myself to live in the moment and not be too hooked/caught up with what may be or what may not be because that's the future, and I have no control over that.