I have been fairly miserable the past couple of years as I allowed obligations to overtake my personal life. I ended up sacrificing the small things that bring enjoyment thinking that it was better (more honorable?) to put aside personal things for the sake of accomplishing obligations.
That was very much the wrong attitude and I came to find I had nothing left in my life worth living for...I was just living. Unfortunately, after sacrificing everything for a couple years, it has become habit and therefore hard to break. Even after finally getting off the Board of my homeowners association (HOA - the bane of my existence), I did fit in things like exercising and reading, but I wasn't planning on allowing myself to purchase anything really fun that would "waste my time" before I accomplished losing weight or whatever other goals I had set. Isn't that essentially the same thing I was doing with my other obligations?
So today I decided, no, I am going to choose enjoyment. I want to have a life worth living again. I am going to purchase Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. While this may seem trivial, it's the trivial things that I have given up that have really had an effect on me - like mailing out birthday cards. That was such a part of who I was and what I was known for, that I really felt a deep loss when I stopped. So little by little, I am going to take my life back. I used to love playing video games, particularly role playing video games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior. I sacrificed video games all during college and after. Well no more! Look out Mario Bros, here I come!
