As a young child, I watched my mother do the same thing day in and day out; cleaning, cooking, rearing children and taking care of a husband. This, in my mind, was the only way to live. Keep the house running, food on the table and your family happy- but after a few years of doing this myself, I began to grow bored.

My lackluster life didn’t have room for spontaneity. In my mind, spontaneity was an irresponsible way to live – you must have a schedule, a plan, an order to things in order to survive. But, I was missing out on so much, until I learned how to make the most of the day.

Re-think your position on life.

I always watched my “live life to the fullest” friends in envy. They held something that I didn’t comprehend, didn’t imagine could be a lifestyle for me. But that was just it – I was so set in my ways of how life should be lived – how to get from point A to point B – that I forgot my position on life.

Life is a precious thing. Don’t take it for granted for one day it will be your last. So, if this is true, why are we spending so much time doing things that don’t matter when we could make the most of the one day we know we have?

Well, it’s easy to get caught up in the life we think we should live – donating baked goods to every bake sale or school party when we could purchase some items from a store once in a while, keeping an immaculate home that looks more like a hospital than a place where families grow and prosper or baking every meal from scratch when a pizza place is just down the road. While meeting commitments are very important, what about actually making the most of your time with the people you love?

This is the time where you must ask yourself, “do I want to create a meaningful life for my family and myself, or do I want to continue living the only way I know how?” You have to be in the driver seat of your own destiny.

Instead of beating yourself up for living a blasé life, decide how you want to live the rest of your life, beginning now.

On a piece of paper, write down all the commitments you have on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. Set this list aside. Next, write a mission statement for your life – for example, my mission statement is “Live each day as it were my last by allowing the people I love to know how much I love them, taking risks that may make me uncomfortable at times but will create a fuller life and doing one thing each day to make my inner-self smile.” Once you have completed your mission statement, pull out the list you wrote of your commitments and compare the two. In a matter of minutes you will see if you are actually living the way you want to, or if changes need to be made to achieve the life that you want to own.

Now, start with a clean sheet of paper and write down all the things you have always dreamed of doing. For example, my list contained items such as bungee jumping, visiting Europe, creating art, becoming a published writer and so on. These items are things you have always dreamed about – no matter how little or big – but haven’t found the time, courage, or both, to do. Include your family and friends in this list as well, such as having a girl’s weekend at a secluded getaway location, monthly picnics with the kids, flying kites and so on.

Once you have completed your list, you are set to spice up your life by adding spontaneity to the mix.