“Where I am right now is not a good place!”  That’s how one woman reacted when I suggested that if she wanted to begin loving her life, she should begin now.  “But my life is a mess,” she protested.  “I can’t possibly begin loving my life until I fix everything that’s wrong.”

While I certainly don’t want to diminish what this woman was going through, putting off loving your life until you’ve fixed everything that’s wrong with it is the reason so many of us become overwhelmed and stay stuck in unproductive routines.  Loving your life as a starting point is what will give you the energy you need to make the improvements you want to make.  Because how hard are you going to work to improve something you don’t love?

Let’s face it, our lives often look like a mess because living is messy work.  But no matter how messy your life is, it can always get a whole lot messier.  One of my favorite Love-Your-Life stories is a parable about a poor farmer who went to a rabbi for advice on how to improve his miserable life. The farmer lived in a one-room home with his wife, six kids and his in-laws. 

The rabbi told him to go home and bring his goat, pig and cow to live inside the house.  The man was confused but trusted the rabbi and followed his advice.  After a few weeks of living in an impossibly chaotic household, the farmer went back to the rabbi and told him that things had gotten even worse.  “Now I feel like I am living ina a barn!” he said.

The rabbi told him to remove the animals from his house.  The farmer returned in a few days, happier than he had been in years.  He told the rabbi his home now felt spacious, clean and quiet.  He thanked the rabbi for showing him that he actually did love his life.

Encouragement Always.