The title says it all, life is not a rehearsal. It plainly and simply isn't. Why do we then end up living our lives like a rehearsal? So many half arsed attempts at “improving ourselves” and in other instances no actions were taken to attempt to achieve our goals, we simply gave up before the race even began. I'm sure at one point or another we have been or have interacted with people who have been trying to do something for years. Trying to go to the gym. Trying to start that business. Trying to improve their social lives. Trying. Trying. Trying. This does not necessarily imply that trying is bad because it is the only way to start something new- you attempt to do it. However, there should be progression from trying to getting slightly better to the positive cycle of gains pushing us forward.
However, most of us end up stuck in the perpetual cycle of “trying”. We put trying in quotes because they are in reality half-hearted attempts. (Real trying should at least have a positive feedback loop that should propel us to even greater feats). The question then becomes why we stuck (and seemingly can't get free) in this loop of trying. Again, the title answers this question. We treat life as a rehearsal. At one point or another (at least I have) we have imagined that we can flip the switch from off to on and become impeccable performers. We believe that when the moment comes, we will start that million-dollar business, we will summon the courage to talk to that girl, we will be able to fight the guy attacking us. This then leaves us treating life as a rehearsal and not as something to be attacked head on every single day.
One thing that is ubiquitous in our human nature is that we are constantly on the search for something. However, intention is a huge part of the equation which can lead us to treating life as a rehearsal or simply leading a life filled with offense and attacking all our available opportunities. This ubiquitous search can involve us finding reasons not to and reasons to do something. Most of us are heavily skewed on the side of reasons not to do something. We justify our own inactions by deliberately finding reasons not to play the game and instead sit on the bleachers watching others live the life we have so desperately craved. How many times have you wished that you had that dream job, that dream relationship, that dream body etc. but ended up giving yourself reasons not to go after them. ‘He probably got his job because of family connections’ ‘He’s probably taking steroids to get that physique’ These are all but wrong justifications to continue living our own mediocre lives.
The life of rehearsal is damning especially because it leads to mental anguish. We know who we are and we know what we are capable of and that disparity between dream and reality is really a source of much pain. But as referenced in our earlier article the alchemy of pain, this pain could be the catalyst that is very much needed for a huge change from living life as a rehearsal and actually living the life we want because we are living proactively.
There is an immediate change when the mindset is shifted from searching for reasons to quit to searching for reasons to overcome. This is what life is all about, overcoming. We overcome our own negative self beliefs and we soon discover that it is only us who put a ceiling to our own potential. We overcome our own fears and realize that the only life worth living is the one which we are on the edges and actually push ourselves. We overcome our seemingly incurable sadness and discover that there are always ways to be happy even in the bad times. However, all these stories of overcoming will never come to fruition if we continue to treat our lives as a rehearsal.
They say that fortune favours the bold. And who are the bold in this instance? They are the few who chose themselves. They are the few who believed in their own capacity for growth and fulfillment through growth. They are the few who decided that the most important thing in life is to take action and proactively choose the life that they deem worthy. They are few but the only life worth living is the life is that the few are living.
Let life be the reward, not the preparation of living the life you have dreamed of.
Love,
Hum.
Love the life you live then live the life you love ❤️