Being Spontaneous Will Make You Happy

You are never going to create all the happiness you deserve if you don't have spontaneity in your life. 

Being a spontaneous person doesn't mean you're a flake.  You just can't have a life where everything is structured, organized and controlled.  My life was like that.  My administrator knew where I was every moment of the day.  My life was like a gong, it goes off and I am supposed to be at certain place.  When a window of time opens up she would fill it in with another commitment.  My personal life was the same.  We ate the same things each day (Monday was hamburger day, Tuesday was chicken day, etc.), Saturday was movie day, sex was one way, never met new friends, never tried a new restaurant, etc, etc, etc.

When I would go on vacation, it would be the first time I was not waking up to an alarm.  One of the first rules of vacation should be to never wake up to an alarm. When I wake up I wake up.  So if I miss the helicopter ride, too bad, I slept.  When I travel out of the United States, I always bring back the currency of that country.  Why do I do that?  Because, I believe I am going to go back again.  I might not, but I believe I will. 

I have money from Cairo.  I don't know if I am ever going to go back to Cairo, but I believe I will if I want too.  Therefore, I don't have to see all of Cairo in one trip.  I don't have to have every minute of every day scheduled because I'm afraid I will never return.

When we went to Rome we only experienced less than half of Rome.  We saw some wonderful, fantastic things.  There wasn't enough days to see it all unless we spent less time seeing the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, Coliseum.  We could have gotten to very place there was in Rome in the four days we were there.  We could have done that.  However, we only saw less than half of Rome because we wanted to just lay around in our beautiful hotel, Have drinks and people watch at an outdoor cafe, spend a entire afternoon at the Vatican (you really need a week to see it all), etc.

The bottom line is we didn't view this trip as a onetime shot where we had to get everything in because we may never return.  By doing so, we could be spontaneous and do what we wanted each day.  Being spontaneous made the trip a very happy journey.  BTW, we have vacationed in Rome many times since and have still not seen it all.

So, having a life of spontaneity is critical and important for you to be able to get all the happiness you deserve.  I'm serious, you will never have all the happiness you deserve if your life is totally scheduled.  You have got to get in tune with yourself.  You have to find out what makes you happy.  Being spontaneous will help you do that. 

Now, let me give you the bad news.  Commitment equals a spontaneity drain.  Commitment sucks the life out of spontaneity.  I'm not telling you to never make commitments.  What I am telling you is you need to recognize the impact commitment has on your spontaneity and therefore your happiness.

What is commitment?  If you have children the spontaneity in your life goes away.  If you have a dog you give up a certain amount of spontaneity.  I could cope with Dweezel, who was our cat, because at least we could leave the sucker for three days and go to Vegas.  Put enough litter down and enough food and he was actually more friendly when we come home. 

Both Ellen and I love dogs, so we rescued Zita.  However, she takes spontaneity away from our life.  If you buy a new car you have given up some spontaneity to make the car payments.  Now I am not telling you don't buy cars, don't have kids, don't have pets.  What I am saying is, rationalize in your head how much spontaneity you are willing to give up for that commitment. 

That new car feels good now and it is nice and shinny, but after awhile you realize it's a piece of pretty iron that gets you to work and play.  If you are paying $500 a month for your new car that's taking $500 a month from something you could be doing that is more spontaneous. 

Sooo, just think about every one of the commitments you make in life.  Remind yourself  you are giving up something that is very, very precious to you which is called spontaneity.