“You can have it all. You just can’t have it all at once.” – Oprah Winfrey

This quote reminds me of Veruca Salt in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. She wants EVERYTHING and she wants it NOW.  What happens to her? She goes “where all the bad eggs go, down the garbage chute,” that leads to the furnace. What a great moral we can all learn from this bratty, needy, high maintenance character.

As I’ve gotten older I notice that the things I want are different. It’s not just toys, clothes and candy anymore. I want all the stuff we all dream of in life: success, happiness, love, trust, financial stability, maybe children one day, etc. There are some days when I get down thinking that since I don’t have some of those NOW, I’ll never have them at all. How false is that. Oprah is exactly right. I can have all of these things in life, just not all at once. And where would the fun be in that anyway? Spreading out all the things I want in life helps to fill my days and allows me to enjoy everything individually. Yes, many of these will overlap and I will get to enjoy them simultaneously, but then there are the things I want that I will get to experience in different ways.

What I thought was “success” before will change as I get older, throughout my career(s) and relationships. What I know to be “love” will change as well and will feel different each time I get a shot at it. My reasons for happiness will also transform over time and I know that I will continue to find happiness in different things and ways. So instead of focusing on what I don’t have, I have to focus on what I do have, right now. Feel and experience every feeling and experience to the fullest and cherish it while I can, knowing that tomorrow I may just get a shot at something new, that I’ve always wanted, not getting to ever have again what I have today.

I can have it all, that is for sure, I just can’t have it all at once. And I am coming to peace with that! After all, I don’t want to end up in the furnace for being greedy!

Wanna see Veruca Salt flip out old school Wonka style? Click on that bratty little face below haha