Appreciation... is it really worth bothering?

If we stop for a moment and think about what’s on our minds, it's usually something to do with the future. What you need to do next, who needs something or (hopefully) how do i achieve my goals for this week/month/year. We’re constantly looking forward to what's next.

 

We do the same here at peak. We’re constantly pushing to learn more, do more, be better people and push our boundaries which is fantastic, but sometimes we do this so much that we fail to appreciate what we’ve achieved and what we already have. 

 

I was recently forced down this line of thinking last week when I woke up to no running water in the house, (something to do with a poorly designed piping system that couldn’t handle the cold spells we were having). It completely shook my day up. I couldn’t wash, the house was freezing, couldn’t brush my teeth, flush the toilet, couldn’t make my breakfast or pack a drink, couldn’t fill the iron up to iron my shirt. I had gone from a perfectly happy person to a mild wreck over something as simple as running water.

 

It got me thinking about how people used to live before running water to a house was even a thing and how different it must have been. Heck, only 100 years ago flushing indoor toilets and fresh water to a house was very rare. Now look at me, having a bad time because i can’t spend 15 minutes standing under fresh perfectly temperatured water. 

 

I started thinking about the other things we take for granted and what it would be like without these things. Heating during these cold months, cars to take us far greater distances than most of our ancestors ever traveled, supermarkets giving us huge choices on food and drinks, phones to instantly contact loved ones, a health system that for all its faults is still there in an absolute emergency, the list just grew and grew.

So, while looking forward is great and an absolute must do for a successful and happy life, we must also learn to appreciate the now. Appreciate what we already have and just how bloody lucky we are to live when we do.