Think about the best trips you’ve ever taken with others. Have you noticed that the joy was in the experience and connection you shared with the people you were traveling with? That it almost didn’t matter where you were headed, as long as you were with the right group on the journey?
This is true in life as well. We want to be traveling with the people we love and exploring our many adventures and experiences together. Life is short, which often becomes much more noticeable when someone we love passes away. These experiences make us realize just how important it is to savor every minute, and places more emphasis on the things and people that matter most.
This is preferable to focusing on every bump in the road. It is easy to get bogged down by the distractions of life, and miss all of the truly important things right in front of us. We can end up wasting days, weeks and even years worrying about what others are thinking of us, and other negative concerns that removes us from the moment.
This is not to say that troubling or unpleasant situations are trivial, and should be ignored, but rather that we ought to make as good use of our valuable time as possible.
Hopefully, we won’t let our fears keep us from trying new experiences, as we may miss out on the best times of our life! Quite often we hear of regrets from those who allowed trepidation to prevent them from pursuing their dreams.
My dad is a great, but unfortunate example, of someone who deprived himself of many joys in life. Rather than enjoying any of his hard-earned money, he scrimped and saved, never spending a dime, even during his retirement. The expression, ‘You can’t take it with you’ is definitely true, and I would have loved to see him delight in more of his earnings and the comforts it could have brought him.
It is important to save money, and equally important to use it to treat yourself as well. This doesn’t necessarily mean spending a large amount in order to have fun, because money can’t buy you happiness. However, it can buy you access to many pleasurable things and places to travel and explore, when you allow yourself to use it. Enjoy the ride!
Action Step:
Treat yourself to something fun today.
The Cathie Barash Blog 
A lot of truth in your post ~
Thanks Mary! Great to read your comment!
So true.. my dad too tends more towards saving than spending and I’ve often had this exact discussion with him and threatened to throw it in his grave after him if he doesn’t enjoy it now(all in jest of course and all his children say the same…it’s his money not for us later). However, when I remember he grew up in very impoverished circumstances and threw the depression I kind get it a little more. Also, I thank him for teaching me to save and my mother for teaching me the balance between saving and spending. No good earning it if it brings you no joy. Leanne
Hi Leanne! I really enjoyed reading your comments, thank you. It is a wonderful gift to be taught how to save, and even better how to balance that with some fun, reasonable spending while ‘living within our means.’
As you say in your first paragraph, it depends who you are with. I went out the other day and thinking back, it was a rainy day, the cable car was suspended when we came, thunder and lightning started, then the buses were too full so we had to walk and the traffic later in the car was terribly heavy. Nothing really went right on that day , but I still got home and felt I had a fantastic day, and it was all because of hte right company, as we made the best out of it and still had fun.
Moneywise I totally agree with you too, I am as a single mum struggling financially but you cannot let that make yourself miserable and stay at home every day. There are lots of activities which are not too expensive like going on a cycle ride, have a picnic instead of a resaurant etc. You can still enjoy life and yes occasioanlly treat yourself! Love your blog by the way! 🙂
Thank you so much for your great comments! How terrific that you were able to have fun, in spite of things not going right on your recent outing. Also, I liked the picnic and cycling ideas as great examples of inexpensive ways to have a good time. So happy to hear you enjoy my blog! 🙂
Great points!
It is important to plan, choose your friends, save and spend to enjoy your life
Thanks for bringing this to the party! I hope you have fun clicking on links!
Thanks Susie! I enjoyed visiting your blog, and joining the virtual party with the wide variety of links! Great to see so many people joining in! 🙂