We’ve all heard the phrase, “Living your best life”.

You know what I’m talking about. You’re on your lunch break scrolling through social media and then you see the caption, “living my best life”.  It’s usually accompanied by a pic of someone laid out on a beach, posted up in a new city, or celebrating some major accomplishment.

Typically, the sun is shining, they’re laughing, and you can practically hear the birds chirping in the photo. Maybe a little something like this:

And you’re still at work trying to figure out how the homie is living their best life…while you’re looking like this:

(This is actual footage of me after school…I was trying to get some work done, my students hijacked phone for an impromptu photo shoot, and ended up saying something so outrageous I made this face…right at the time they decided to snap this photo.)

But whether you look like summertime Nik or planted firmly in the school year Nik, there’s something I want you to think about.

What if our best life and our most instagrammable life aren’t the same thing? Sometimes, they are–but most times they’re not.

And there is NOTHING wrong with an experience or an instagram caption (I’m currently planning a trip thinkin’ what Drake song is going to be used in my caption #BasicAFAndIDontCare). You’re alive, beautiful, and employed…you better take your talents to wherever you’d like. I just want to share with you what you gain when you shift your thinking in the way you define what your best life truly is.

You can appreciate the small moments.

This summer, I was a traveling fool. I was hitting a city a week (maybe having slightly more fun than I should) and when it was over, I found myself craving the high of living a life that didn’t reflect my day to day (hello Miami cabanas, New Orleans seafood, and LA rooftop steak dinners)

I caught myself saying, “I’m just living for the next vacation.”
But how dangerous is that?
And how callous is that for all of the other moments with which God has blessed me just because they aren’t on a rooftop or in a cabana?

I’m not saying the time we spend in situations that aren’t our normal aren’t blessings…I’m just saying they aren’t our only blessings.

The moments when we get to be the hands and feet of Jesus are when we’re living our best life.
The times when we prove to ourselves how far you’ve come and how much you’ve grown is you living your best life.
The choices we make when no one is watching are our best life.

Our best isn’t always our what’s instagram worthy…it’s just that, what makes us our best.

And best ain’t always easy, ya’ll. Trust…I know, but it’s worth it.

You remember your mindsets, not your circumstances, create your best life.

A dear friend (ya’ll my friends and my therapist write this blog for me, I swear) reminded me after a bad morning that emotions can be controlled. I got my pathetic self from under my blankets, threw on some workout clothes and went on a hike to this beautiful location about and hour and a half outside of Atlanta. When I was done, barely breathing, and super appreciative of all of God’s creation, I went to one of my favorite spots and indulge in some bomb tacos.

And suddenly I was back in LA–eating dinners on rooftops and hiking Runyon Canyon (where Gucci Mane and his friends greeted me with very hospitable ‘good morning’ no lie!). Not because I was 2,100 miles away from home…but because the immense amount of gratitude I felt for the time I had to sit quiet and reflect on my life mirrored my time away.

And I didn’t have to buy a plane ticket to make it happen.

It wasn’t my location that was the game change…it was my mindset.

How many times have you been on vacation and saw someone who looked miserable and you thought to yourself…”How the in all the hecks can you be mad in a place as beautiful as this?!” but when you’re mind isn’t right…nothing else can be.

So while the next time you’re scrolling through a timeline smile to yourself and know that whether you’re on a beach, an operating room, or a school building…you’re living your best life. Some places just may be a lil’ more camera ready than others.

 

There’s magic in our musings (and our life off the ‘gram),
Nicole