Let’s live in the moment

I was reminiscing about how Pattaya was some 7 or 8 years ago and the word that came to mind at the time was ‘the golden era’ for us Westerners in the city. There were property gala parties every weekend, the market was buoyant and most Western expats were making a good living. Since then however it has become much harder for the majority and many of my expat friends have been forced to go back home and leave Thailand.

It is all to easy to smile and tag that era of my life as the ‘Golden Era’ for Western expats, but that would be unfair on the now – this moment right now living in Thailand. As the title says ‘let’s live in the moment‘.

I think what happens in reality is we never quite realise or appreciate just how great our lives are and it is only upon reflection – that is, looking back – that we take stock. Life was indeed great back then, but it is also great now (regardless of if you had to go back to your native country).

Bottom line is ‘life is precious’

It can be a bit overwhelming at times when I take in all that I have in my life and even though I am motivated and hungry to keep developing, my life is already beautiful. I live in a tropical country with a rewarding and interesting career plus I have a wife and two children. What more can a man ask for?

The only thing sad is that life is not infinite and that one day it all has to end

This means we must embrace and love everything we do and everyone we surround ourselves with. We can have the discussion about whether it is best to live abroad, like Thailand, but this is the cherry on top to life. I still wish more of my friends and family would take more of a chance on their life and try living abroad for more breadth to their life proposition – but some people just don’t have it in them to make the step. So c’est la vie.

Many lose the plot though

I shared a post about my life in Thailand recently as I am proud and happy with what I have created and experienced, yet many of the older guys retired in Thailand commented that I was living my life wrong in Thailand as I was surrounding myself only with foreigners!

It was very odd. They summised that if you lived in Thailand you must ‘live like the Thais do’. Wrong, you must live how YOU want to live – we should not conform to the norm, there should be no rules on how you live your life – you just need to be your our own person. I even had one developer in Thailand suggest to me once that I should be married to a Thai and not a Russian as I live in Thailand. Just plain stupidity.

This blogs objective is just to remind us – in fact, to remind me too – that we need to live in the moment and love the very fact we are alive.