I don't believe that life always works out in the end. I don't believe that if you work hard, you're a good person, that life automatically hands you the happy ending. No matter what you do, how amazing you are, sometimes life is unfair. You don't get the dream job. You don't find your life partner. You may not beat cancer. But I do believe that even when life is hard, even if you don't get that fairy tale ending, life is worth living to its best potential.
While this may seem like a really negative outlook, when you really think about it, it's actually an extremely positive way to live your life. I'm saying that there are no guarantees in life, you're not owed that dream ending. But if you choose to celebrate the good things that do happen along the way, at the end of the day, you are living your best fairy tale.
If you simply wait until the end to have your fantasy come true - you're missing the entire point of what a good life is. A good life is not 75 years of working towards your dreams and then only having maybe 10-15 years to enjoy those things. Life is for enjoying the things that happen to you as they occur. The dream is having a life you're able to find joy in every single day.
So how do you live your fairy tale now?
Be Present
Pay attention to your life every second of the day. Something I've been doing lately is pausing every hour to regroup and if I need to, give myself a minute of joy doing something that I know relaxes me. I'm trying to look less at where I want to be in 5 years and more at where I want to be in 5 minutes so that I'm able to truly be conscious of my life as it happens.
Celebrate the Small Things
Big promotions and personal milestones are absolutely worth popping bottles for - but so are the days you make it through by purely surviving. You're not going to experience life altering achievements every day. But you are going to experience little things every day that make you smile. That's a win. Celebrate those. Eat a donut, go on a walk, get a manicure - do something to celebrate!
Be Mindful
If you're unable to carve out small moments for yourself or you're not finding any moments of joy in your life. You need to make a change. Every single day is not going to be a good day. Some are positively terrible. But if there is not one single moment you can step away and breathe or smile at least once - you need to take steps for a new life. You don't get to do life twice. Make sure you aren't wasting too much time in a situation that makes you miserable.
Be Realistic
Reality TV sets these unrealistic standards for life. Stop comparing the way you live and who you are to the lives of people in the media. you're only seeing half their story and quite frankly, their stories are not the norm. Figure out what your happy looks like and shoot for that. I can't afford to leave my job and travel full time right now. But I can afford to plan trips until full time travel becomes a reality one day. Baby steps. Be realistic.
At the end of the day, happy is available to you every single day. The fairy tale is all around you waiting to be had. If you take the time to adjust your understanding of what a dream life looks like, you'll realize 90 years of every day magic moments are better than 75 years of misery to only "live your fantasy" for 10-15 years max. The happy ending is a life full of smiles.