On Visiting One of the Best Christmas Light Displays in America

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Last week I shared my experience visiting the Gardens Aglow Christmas light display at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.

Here is a link to the Twitter thread if you missed it: https://twitter.com/_cbill_/status/1599750564044226566?s=20&t=CU7nzSjYnzgsmGRP5AwHVQ.

You’ll find lots of beautiful pictures of the display in this thread. 

In the thread, I shared what I had learned about the display with you.

But I didn't give you any takeaways you can apply to improve your own life.

Let's fix that.

Stories are a great tool for learning. They are used to share lessons and ideas using concrete, real-world examples that you can apply to your own life.

So, what can you learn from this specific story?

Here are 5 lessons you can apply to your own life:

1. Go do interesting stuff.

Get out of your house and experience what life has to offer.

Why?

Because doing interesting things makes your life more fun and exciting.

When you do more fun and exciting things, your quality of life improves.

You become happier and feel more fulfilled.

And you have more intriguing stories to share, too. 

In other words, you become a more interesting person and have a more interesting life.

2. Doing interesting stuff helps you take a break.

It's beneficial to take time to not think about your work, habits, or obligations for a while.

It reduces your stress.

Hustling 24/7 isn't a viable long-term strategy if you want to be happy and healthy.

Take some time to enjoy your life.  

This doesn't mean go take months off of work to backpack around the world. It can be as simple as taking a night off to go experience a light display.

This time off will often renew your passion for your work, habits, and so on.

Hyper-focusing on one thing all day every day often leads people to burn out and even stop pursuing their passion.

So, taking time to do something different is a stress-relieving strategy worth doing.

3. It pushes you out of your comfort zone.

Trying new experiences can lead to new hobbies, interests, and traditions.

Pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone expands your current comfort zone.

For instance, this story was my second time visiting the display.

My former roommates and I have now created a new holiday tradition together.

We wouldn't have created this tradition if we didn't push ourselves to try something new.

We would've stayed in our lanes, missing out on an incredible experience.

This leads me to my next point...

4. Doing interesting things can bring you closer to friends and family.

My former roommates I mentioned earlier hadn't seen me in a year.

We live several hours apart. But we make time to see each other thanks to this new tradition.

They live roughly 45 minutes away from the display, while I lived over 2 hours away.

We get to meet up and catch up about our lives while experiencing the light display together.

Being able to keep old friends in your life is an underrated skill to have.

If they are worth the effort, make time to keep them in your life.

Shared experiences like these also gives you more to talk about, helping you strengthen your bond together.

5. Doing interesting things can lead you to do more interesting things.

Once you've got a taste for great experiences, chances are you'll want to experience some more.

Your curiosity has been piqued.

This light display experience led me to see what other light displays are around my area.

I found one light display roughly 15 minutes away from my home, which I visited last weekend.

I also found a light display walk-through experience 25 minutes away, which I'll be visiting later this week.

These new light displays are great discoveries I wouldn't get to experience if I wasn't curious.

The initial light display experience left me wanting more.

And this is often the case with any interesting experience.

Once you find stuff you enjoy doing, you naturally want to do more of it or experience similar things like it.

As mentioned earlier, having more fun improves your quality of life.

Wrapping up

So, the Gardens Aglow light display story can be a catalyst for improving your own life.

Take these lessons and apply them. If you came up with additional takeaways I didn't mention, please apply those too.

Recognizing the hidden lessons within stories like this is a powerful tool.

Use it and watch how your life improves in the following months.