“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough,” –Mae West. The Transcendentalist time period relates mostly to the philosophy, “Live life to the fullest.” Transcendentalists’ believe in self-reliance, individualism, and inner spiritual beliefs, just like any person who wants to live their life to the fullest. Every person should enjoy every moment of their lives by appreciating everything in order to follow their dreams and to live their lives to the fullest. The most important step to living life to the fullest is enjoying every moment. Nobody knows when their last day on Earth might be, or the ones they love, so enjoying life while it lasts is the best way to live. Do not look back at the past and get disappointed because it is a waste of time, look forward to the future with hope and enthusiasm. Also, the past cannot be changed, so move on by forgetting the negatives of the past and focusing on the positives. Anyone can try their best to live up their life by obtaining positivity, religion or beliefs do not matter because there is no religion obtaining their believers to be embedded with sorrow, just like the people who believe in the Enlightment period. “A virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion,” (Emerson, 186). Both Transcendentalism and living life to the fullest do not require people to follow every rule and law in order to achieve success. You need to have self-reliance and trust in your feelings and instincts. God gave people the amazing ability to reason; it enables people to discover both scientific and spiritual truth. Enjoying and always living every moment of life is pretty important but following your dreams is another way to live life to its very fullest. Following dreams is a significant way to achieve goals and live the life one always wanted. Dreams and wishes do not always magically come true; they are achieved with hard work. Following dreams is a great way to live a nice life because one pursues what they are most passionate about. When following dreams, one has to have confident in everything they do. If they do not succeed the first time, they should learn from mistakes and try again. “To be great is to be misunderstood…,” (Emerson, 186). When am individual is reaching for their dreams, other people might think they are not being logical but that should not matter as long as they believe in themselves. Like mentioned before, Transcendentalists’ believed that self-reliance and trust in oneself are important. They also believed in feeling over reason. Ones dream may not seem logical but if they are passionate about it, they should find a way to achieve it. Following dreams and enjoying every moment of life are steps to living life to its greatest, but it will not be complete without appreciation. A person’s appreciation and positivity are highly rewarding, which will result in living life to its fullest. Hating is just a waste of time because it is not motivating, so are negative thoughts. Always be thankful for everything because there are always people out there who are less fortunate. Accept every person for who they are; not everyone is the same and everyone has flaws. Enjoy the little things in life, the ones that people do not really think about, such as nature. Always see the bright side of things, no matter how bad a day went, it could always be worse; stay positive by looking on the bright side of everything. “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind,” (Emerson, 186). Nothing is more honest than what goes on in an individuals own mind and heart. That might not always be easy but Thinking positively will give you determination and encouragement. Rely on thyself and instincts, just like Transcendentalists’. They enjoy nature, completely rely on themselves, and believe that if natural events seem tragic, they can be explained on a spiritual level. Everything happens for a reason and every tragic event has many upsides, no matter how horrible it is. One cannot live their life to the fullest with hate, they need to have appreciation just like they need to follow their dreams and enjoy every moment. Every person should try their best to live their life to the fullest. This can be fulfilled by enjoying every moment, following dreams, and having appreciation for everything in life. All these ideas make me wonder about how different the world would be if we had more than one life.
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