Sounds so easy. What’s the big deal? Eat well. Sleep well. Work out. Work well. And be happy. 

Haha. Easier said than done. I can tell you exactly how to live a smart life. I’m smart enough to know it all. But the more profound question is, am I following it? Hmm. Nope. So what’s the point in being so smart if you are unable to APPLY what you think is so obvious. 

A friend and I made a list of things that we would want to do. What we would want to be. How we would want to make minor changes and include some habits in our daily life that would make us not just survive or even live, but enjoy life as we see it. And It made me realise how much we just breeze through the day doing what we must do and not what we want to. 

Yes, we must do our duty. At the same time, we need to be smart about ourselves. We cannot let ourselves live in a rut and then wake up one day to wonder where life went. If we don’t take care of ourselves, how can we take care of those around us? 

I love this line. Remember to fill your cup. Because you cannot pour from an empty cup. 

Planning and living a smart life means making sure that you don’t suddenly wake up when you are sixty and look back at your life with regret. I have always believed that you might as well regret what you did and not what you didn’t do. That’s probably not something that would come under the umbrella of ‘smart living’, but I’d do my best to follow it nevertheless. 

One of the reasons that I go to bed smiling is because of the smart decisions that I think I have made in life—the people. The way I try to look at the positives. The undying optimism and the pollyanna tendency. It works for me. It makes me smile. And that is smart to me. 

‘Course, I also live in denial a lot. And I tend to shrug a lot of things under the carpet telling myself that I’d get to it when I cross the bridge. Again. I think it works for me. I’m not gonna sit and worry about what might or might not happen. My life is here today. My Present. My Smart Living Strategy. 

Another point of concern is bringing a balance between the different lives that we lead. Which I am still struggling with. I need to understand that it does not always have to be productive. But it should be something that the heart desires. The ‘me’ time. It could be a book. The guitar. A walk. Chatting with a friend. Eating chocolates. Something that I do JUST FOR ME. Who wants to go to bed thinking, damn what a waste of a day. 

I guess at the end of the day, it’s all very subjective, isn’t it? What works for me would not for you, and vice versa. So, smart is also objective. Steve Jobs wears the same clothes every day. He thinks it’s smart cos he does not have to waste time thinking about what to wear. I, on the other hand, won’t mind spending some time looking at my cupboard, rearranging some stuff and adding colors to my life. This might cheer me up. But Jobs would disagree. And it’s ok. I don’t hold it against him 🙂 

If you asked me to define smart life in one line, I’d have to say this.

“If you go to bed at night smiling, you are living a smart life. Let the world be damned”.