Living by design, not by default

There’s something about an impending birthday that always gets me in a contemplative and pensive mood. Ever since I’ve landed on the wrong side of 30, birthdays are no longer a date I look forward to with as much anticipation.

I joked that Sophie is now the only one in our home who looks forward to birthdays and I’m glad there’s still someone who’s reminding me of my upcoming birthday.

I have a tendency to be more introspective than usual as I inch towards my birthday, which is a fairly common phenomenon for many too I’m sure.

The main theme of my reflection was about life.

My life.
More specifically where I am in life and where I want to be in life.

Hitting the pause button in life

Having these moments of reflection is sort of my way to hit the pause button and take stock of life because it’s just so easy to get sucked up by life.

A recent conversation with a girlfriend got me thinking about how so many of us are just drifting through life day by day, feeling unhappy, unfulfilled and unsatisfied.

But more often than not, we’ve thrown in the towel and resigned ourselves to the unending demands of life. We wonder when we can ever get off the perpetual cycle of mothering duties, work, up keeping of the home where the end appears so far from sight.

I know I feel like this at times and it’s so frustrating because there must be certainly more than this in life.

The life where we live by default is far from what many of us picture ourselves. Yet it happens, because we feel we can’t fight it and simply drift along the path of least resistance.

Living by design, not by default

The sails that we’ve set up determines where we end up ultimately. But just imagine, that with just a slight re calibration to our sails, we can change the course and land in a very different place.

But before getting there, we need clarity of where we want to go and how to get there.

 You are going to go through life either by design or by default. ~ Rick Warren

I’m done with living by default and intend to live by design. One where I wake up with intention and be driven by purpose that is so crystal clear so I don’t end up chasing after things that takes me off course. 

One where I know what I was designed and fashioned for.

So for now, I’ll remind myself to 

Be courageous
Be bold
Be unafraid

And that’s birthday wish for my 37-year-old self. 

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Comments: 7

  1. Lyn Lee April 27, 2017 at 11:31 am Reply

    Happy birthday soon, Susan! Yes, agree we have to be more intentional and live by design, at least for the major “stones” in our bottle. The smaller stones can be happy or not so ideal from time to time, but at least the things that matter are headed in the right direction. Jia you!

    • Susan April 27, 2017 at 8:53 pm Reply

      It’s so easy to be on autopilot mode and forget that life is what we make out of it with every choice. Filling my life with the right stuffs and topping it up with lots of joy too. Thanks for the birthday wishes Lyn 🙂

  2. Daddy B April 27, 2017 at 5:11 pm Reply

    Hi Susan

    Happy birthday to you!!!

    It’s good that we take a moment to reflect our own lives and see if we are succumbing to what society wants us to perform instead of what we really want. I think as parents we might at times miss the big price of seeing our kids grow and how they evolve from toddler to kids to teenagers and it is the moment we’ll regret for later on in our lives.

  3. Ai Sakura April 28, 2017 at 9:10 am Reply

    Happy birthday my dear! I pray that you will be guided by Him and live your life to your full potential. 37 is still young!! And anyway, age is always just a number.. no matter what age or where we are in life, we still have the time to change course, as long as we want to. Stay positive and have a beautiful birthday with your loved ones 🙂

    Ai @ Sakura Haruka

  4. pc April 29, 2017 at 11:45 am Reply

    Happy Birthday, Susan! May you continue inject doses of creativity, being purposeful with your life and inspire many of us!

  5. Adele April 30, 2017 at 2:40 am Reply

    Happy Birthday, Susan. Yes agree we have choices in our lives but sometimes we take things for granted. Great inspiration~

    • Susan May 3, 2017 at 8:36 am Reply

      Every choice has a consequence. Even just taking things for granted is a choice so unless we know where we want to get to, we’ll end up taking the easier path and simply drift along.

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