I was browsing through TikTok when I saw a video of a guy playing a guitar while accompanied by his dog. This is the same guy with viral videos of his dog playing the bass drum along tunes he was strumming on his instrument.
However, this time around, the video’s text read saying the dog had passed away a week ago. That video showed a rather elderly dog resting its head on the guitar player’s lap, just like any other videos that they have together, while he strums along a song. He thanked the dog for all the love that she had shared with him throughout the years.
I’ve watched that video several days ago. But, the feeling I have from that video is still with me.
When I look at them, I can feel their love and happiness. He had spent so much time being with his dog doing what he enjoys. It was simple but meaningful.
A Common Factor
This made me wonder: what is a happy life? Or rather, do I have a happy life?
While people could provide a variety of answers to the above question or make different choices in life in order to achieve it, there is one variable among us all that remains the same. That variable is time spent.
I am of the opinion that a large majority of people (myself included) do not take into serious consideration the way we spend our time.
The Heart Yearns
I do not think that I’ll be able to do any other job than the one I’m doing now. I know that I genuinely enjoy it. And for the most part, I do benefit others by doing it. But, it has come to a point where too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Instead of enjoying it, it becomes a chore. Rather than being a source of pleasure and fulfillment, it has become a prison of my own creation.
A recent blunder with a client had made me reflect on how I’ve been taking myself too seriously. I spend most of my time fulfilling tasks and outcomes, that I don’t take time to think, acknowledge, and appreciate. While I carry with me the pressure to maintain a reputation and standards of performance, I fail to recognize that at present, I’ve already come a long way.
A career is meant to be enjoyed. And for a while now, I’ve not stopped to smell the roses.
When that error in judgment with that client was unraveling, a thought crossed my mind if I am fit to be a psychologist. Upon further reflection, it is not so much about the job that I’m doing. But rather, it is the way I treated and viewed myself. I am no different than anyone else. That is, I am not perfect and I will make mistakes. And I don’t think I’ve intentionally spent time in a long while to work on being okay with that.
What did the guitarist and the dog teach me?
As I am writing this, I wonder in what way are the feelings I have from the video related to the woes that I’m facing at the moment. After some consideration, I’ve come to the conclusion that the lesson from all this is that time has to be intentionally spent.
Knowing that I do enjoy what I’m doing, I can be intentional in making the most out of my career. That is, I can take the time to appreciate and acknowledge my present accomplishments more regularly. I can also take the time to learn how to be OK with being imperfect as a psychologist. As a result, by the end of this career, I can look back and see that I did spend all that time actually being happy with what I was doing.
When I viewed that video, I saw how happiness can be so simple. Similarly, my job doesn’t have to be riddled by the burden and complications. It too can contain simple happiness. What it needed was a different approach.