I have always believed that the day I have a sea-facing villa, a sports car and a crapload of money to travel anywhere I want is when I would have ‘made it in life’. Until, I picked this topic to write on, which has forced me to be introspective of other small luxuries that already make me feel rich, that don’t have a price tag.
So after serious contemplation, here is a list of 10 things that make me feel ridiculously rich and a little bit more grateful. These are tiny, forgettable things you take for granted, but if you think about it, they just add a little spark to your otherwise monotonous day.
- Perfect snack: Imagine you are up till 2am and get extremely hungry, craving something extremely specific. As soon as you open your fridge, you find exactly what you were looking for.
- No alarms: It is a wonderful feeling, having no alarms set, knowing you don’t have to be anywhere at the crack of dawn. You could wake up at 12pm, and not rush through the day, making sleeping in a much more peaceful experience.
- Having people you can call: These are not just people you call in the middle of the night when you are in a crisis, but people who you call when you are driving somewhere and need to pass time, or after a long day of work and just rant about anything and everything. People who you can be on facetime with and do your own thing without having to say a word, just to feel their presence.
- Fully charged phone: Having your phone fully charged before you have to go somewhere just makes your life easier and stress-free, without you having to carry around a powerbank.
- Finding money in your pocket: Imagine that your jeans have just come out of laundry and as you wear them, you find a Rs.50 note, all crumpled up in your pocket. That feeling truly makes me feel richer than having money deposited in my bank account. It feels like free money.
- People remembering small things: I personally feel blessed to have people in my life who remember the small things about me. In my opinion, you truly know a person when you know how they like their coffee (or if they like coffee at all). In my case, nothing makes me feel more loved than when someone casually just orders lemon iced tea for me before I have said anything.
- Sweet treat: Being able to say ‘let’s get dessert’ without waiting for a special occasion. As someone who has a big sweet tooth, getting at least one sweet treat a day is just necessary. Not having to worry about looking at how many calories something consists of is truly a blessing.
- Having a family member pack food for you: Till this date, whenever I go back to college from home, my mother and grandmother make and pack boxes of food as if I won’t find anything to eat for the next 3 months. They insist on packing up a suitcase to the brim just with snacks that will remind me of home.
- Changing your mind: If you are as indecisive as me and cannot stick to one plan, it is a privilege to have a safety net and a good support system that allows you to change your mind a 100 times before you commit to something. There is room for trial and error, whether those are your career plans or just some passion project.
- A clean room: This might seem underrated, but having a bed with freshly changed sheets, nothing on the floor, clothes folded and kept away neatly, just makes your day a little stress-free.
I am still waiting for my sea-facing villa and having the luxury of travelling around the world. I am not going to pretend that the small wins have made me transcend the wish for a materialistic lifestyle. However, I have realised ‘making it’ in life doesn’t have to mean I have to be on the ‘Forbes 30 under 30’ list. Sometimes just the simple things like eating your favourite food or receiving a compliment from a stranger is enough to make your day and keep you going. What might seem bare minimum to you, could actually just be the small luxuries in life that make you feel rich.