We are always waiting for the next big thing to happen. Whether it is a subconscious thought process or a recognized feeling, it seems almost everyone believes his life is on the verge of something.

Some are looking for a new and better job; others are about to graduate and enter into adulthood. Still others are hoping to finally stumble upon true love; trying to have a baby; or waiting for their big break.

People are always banking on the fact their lives are soon going to improve, or they are soon going to achieve the success and happiness they have always been searching for.

Shauna Niequist, author of Cold Tangerines, writes in her memoir that she grew up feeling like she lived in a movie, and her mundane life was acceptable as long as she knew the climax was coming and things were going to turn around soon.

We have entertained similar thoughts. Movies and books have presented an unrealistic picture of how life should be, with happy endings and love stories that cannot possibly be attained in real life.

Instead of setting our hopes to find a Nicholas Sparks love story or our godlike vampire boyfriend, we should take stories for what they are: stories. Appreciate books and movies for their possibility of escape from the real world – don’t substitute their expectations for real world values.

You can’t watch a tender interaction between a mother and newborn with a group of girls without one of them remarking, “I can’t wait to have children!” Men are expected to be planning for a successful career by the time they graduate from high school and snag a wife before they graduate college.

We should appreciate the place we are in life, instead of constantly anticipating what is going to happen next. If we are always waiting and wishing for the next best thing to happen, everything good about the present is going to pass us by.

Instead of wondering how life could be better, think about what is good about life right now. Maybe we don’t have picture-perfect, movie-perfect, book-perfect lives. The reality is, we never will. We need to realize the next big moment – and whatever else we have been waiting for – is happening right now.