I have always found this quote from Socrates rather humorous. I would have to respectfully disagree with the gentleman though. Yes, being in a toxic relationship would probably urge you to spend time alone pondering the meaning of life. Especially your own. In this way I believe he is giving us one of the keys to an amazing life. That is to turn whatever challenging situation you find yourself in, into a more fulfilling one. It could be taking that time alone you would want to spend into developing a philosophy of your own. Perhaps it would be taking the job you want to leave so bad and using it to motivate you to take a different course of action. That could be educating yourself or just looking for something that would satisfy your soul as well as your wallet.
As great as comfort is, it can also be a trap. Finding ourselves in a bad job, relationship or other challenging situation may not be desirable, but it just might push us to finally get off our butt and do something about it. If one part of your life isn’t working, pivot to excel at another while you work on correcting it. In my case, a great relationship has allowed me to change my philosophy on life. Having an excellent life partner can help you excel at being a philosopher as well!
There is a cliche that says, “If you live each day like your last, one day you’ll be right.” That is uncomfortably true. As we have discussed numerous times on this site, the funny thing about death is that it seldom calls ahead. Even if you know you the end is near, you are often in a comprised state unable to fulfill all of your desires.
Keeping this in mind, it would be wise for us to start living this way today. There are things that take energy, vitality and time that we should begin today. If you wait until the grim reaper sends you a telegram, it can often be too late.
An added bonus to living this lifestyle is that it brings peace of mind. When you are living life to the fullest, and know it, it is far easier to lay your head on the pillow at night. How about you? Are you living life to the fullest? Are you going to face your end with peace or with regret?
Most of you know I leave for work at 4am. On Monday this follows a night of being a DJ that has me home around 1am. That’s a tough turnaround. I have a fairly long commute. Going on 2 hours of sleep it can be difficult to maintain a grateful and positive attitude on occasion.
There are, however, many things that are a beautiful observation should I pay attention. The sun just beginning to rise this time of year created the amazing image above. That one you can’t help but notice. There are a few that are a little more subtle, but just as heartwarming.
About halfway to work I drive down a more secluded and quiet street. I enjoy the lack of stoplights, and the wildlife. One other thing I at every morning is an elderly couple going for their morning walk. They hold hands and look so loving. I hope to be doing the same with my lovely lady when we reach their age.
The point is, even with 2 hours of sleep heading in to a 9 hour workday, there are still plenty of things to make me smile. The only requirement is to be on the lookout for them. How about you? What are some of the things you are grateful for every morning?
The other day, our fine friends and WordPress, the platform on which this blog is hosted, sent me this little congratulations. It is nice to be sure, but the total is actually over 3000 posts between 5 and 8am. The funny thing is that it was still nice they noticed we are accomplishing something here. I hope it encourages them to have this site viewed in many more locations. This will help our community of driven and wonderful souls looking to better the world and become the best version of themselves to expand into new corners of the world. This brings us to the next couple of notifications I received.
These two notifications came the very next day. One right after another. In actuality, we are viewed in over 200 countries. Again, it was nice to see that they recognize this, but it did not change how I feel about doing these posts. As I mentioned above, the more places we reach, the more this community can help each other. When I write, I think more of just you. That is right. You, the person reading this post right now. We may not know each other personally, we may even be halfway around the world from each other. What I think about it talking to, and caring for, one person at a time. My writing is not to change the world, but to positively affect one soul at a time. In doing so, I believe that is my best shot at positively affecting the world.
Outside accolades are nice, but they should not be the driving point as to why you are pursuing your goal. If your goal is focused solely on you, outside accolades, or lack there of, will drive or curtail your performance. If your goal is for a purpose bigger than yourself, your motivation is in the goal itself. Find the goal and do not let whether the outside world pats you on the back decide if you want to keep going. Work for your purpose.
We touched on this thinking a few posts back with the story of my untimely, and fortunately temporary, death. What is really important in life has very little, if anything, to do with material goods. Beyond the basics of food, clothing and shelter there can only be so much joy to be found in excess of material goods. The irony is that is what a lot of us spend our time and energy pursuing. We work overtime at work to buy a bigger car or a name-brand this or that. These luxuries cannot be taken with us. The ancient Egyptians tried and their stuff is still sitting in the desert. One of my favorite quotes is from Denzel Washington. He said, “You will never see a U-Haul behind a hearse.” That is uncomfortably true.
When we are facing our final days, never are we laying on our death bed wishing for a bigger house or car. No, we would wish for more time with friends and family. In fact, time is the most precious of all the commodities of life. It is with a great deal of irony that we spend little time or energy to make sure we are making the most of whatever time we have. The amount none of us can be sure of. Doing things like living a healthier lifestyle. Reducing stress, eating fairly healthy and making sure we move will not only add life to our years, but could quite possibly add years to our life.
We covered two of the luxuries listed above. What about good company? I love that one. In a world where we are the slave to distraction, why not spend some energy and effort on being more present? It will help us enjoy our good company better. If we are present, we will catch little things that our friends share with us we might otherwise miss. When people leave our lives, we always find ourselves wishing for more time with them. One of the worst emotions to have when we lose someone is regret. “I wish I would have enjoyed the time I spent with them more.” we catch ourselves saying. This only compounds our feeling of loss. How much better would it be to know that we made the most of our time that was given to us?
How about the luxury of a quiet mind? In a world that moves at a mile-a-minute, a quiet mind is priceless. As an author who is currently writing about four different books, some peace and quiet with the voices in my head would be wonderful. How much time to we spend on developing peace of mind? Things like daily meditation and other stress reduction methods are investments in the luxury of peace of mind. So is working on not holding grudges, forgiveness and developing an attitude of gratitude. These are luxuries that we can use every day of our life. These are worth spending our time and money on.
Recently, Margie and I went on a week vacation. It was a memory worth investing in. It captured time, good company and peace of mind. It did, however, require us to be present with each other and what was going on around us. If we would have busied ourselves with thoughts of the obligations we had to return to, complained about the rain or if our food was not done right, it would have been a wasted expense. It is skills Margie and I have worked to improve with every vacation we go on. Our next one should be our honeymoon. We better be present for that one. Invest in the true luxury of life. What other luxuries do you think should have made the list? Share them in the comments below.
This is a good quote to keep in mind. Many people, when confronted with disrespectful people, want to ‘get back at them’. That is easy to understand. They hurt your feelings, so you want to hurt theirs. If you are a person who wants to live an amazing life that is not the way to go. When someone insults you, it is worth keeping in mind that it makes them look petty and rude. That is, unless we respond in kind. Then, we are the ones who look petty. In the moment it can be very unsatisfying to show respect to someone who does not deserve it. It would be so much more fulfilling to return with an insult of our own. Long-term, this would be a poor reflection of our character.
How can you remember or think of such things in the heat of the moment? That is why studying and memorizing quotes like this can be helpful. Putting them into our minds before we find ourselves in challenging situations can help us respond in a fashion that is a better reflection of our character. That is why it is a great idea to find quotes that help you develop your character and get them inside your head. What are some of your favorite quotes that can help improve your life and character? Please share them with all of us in the comments below.
We discuss in great detail many of the tools and strategies you can use to improve yourself. Things such as gratitude and discipline. One of the most important things you can do to assist you in this matter is to surround yourself with like-minded people. This should be done both digitally and physically. Your tribe will support you when you feel you cannot go on. They will encourage you, hold you accountable and provide opportunities you may not have thought of. That is why it is so important to choose the right people to be a part of your tribe.
How can you go about finding the right people to join your tribe? Consider the qualities we discussed moments ago. Do you know someone who is good at encouraging you? How about someone who will hold you accountable and make you live up to your standards? Someone who shares the same goals as you? There is a good chance that you know people like this already and have a few in your life. That is good. Make sure to spend a good amount of quality time in their presence. Then, work on adding more people who fit the traits we just mentioned. Try to get a mix of them all.
How does one gather people of like-mindedness? One of the ways is to join groups and forums that reflect either something you are interested in, or a goal you are chasing. I have been to a few writers groups and belong to many author pages on social media. You can bounce ideas off of each other and get valuable advice, encouragement and accountability. Once again, do this both online and in real life. You need a mix of both.
If you want to improve your tribe even quicker, ponder those who no longer fit with where you are going in life. Try to limit, or eliminate spending time with them. Yes, you may want to help them, but be careful it is not at the cost of your own life. Being around others who are negative, encouraging you to bow to instant gratification and not try to better yourself can be poison for living a healthy and fulfilling life. The best way to move on from these folks is to spend more time with those who inspire, encourage and improve your life. Then, by default, you will have less time to spend with those who don’t.
One thought to keep in mind. When you are searching for others to join your tribe, do not forget to be a good tribe member yourself. Give as much as you get. Brainstorm and share your ideas with others. They will thank you by doing the same.
How many self-improvement books do you imagine there are in the world? I have written 3 by myself. A quick Google search says that over 11,000 self-improvement books are published each year. Let us narrow it down a little. How many books do you think there are about happiness? Once again asking good old Dr. Google, they estimate thousands. I think that would be a very conservative estimate.
The point of all of these questions is that there is a ton of information out there on both improving your life and the level of happiness in it. It can feel impossible knowing where to start. (My suggestion would be the great book, A Happy Life for Busy People) The ironic thing is that we are making this far more complicated than it need be. Yes, there are amazing tools and strategies we can use. Many of which are both on this website and in my 3 books. You do not have to google sites like secret2anamazinglife.com or even wonderful authors like Neil Panosian to discover a beautiful life. Your life can improve dramatically using the 11 items listed above.
None of these items cost a thing. They can all be done whether you live in a studio apartment or a mansion. Each one of us has a surprising amount of tools at our disposal to improve our life. How about getting and giving a hug? Both parties end up better for it and it costs nothing. Things like gratitude, meditation and watching a sunset or sunrise. I think we could all agree that these would make our live a bit more amazing. If you were to do all 11 items on the list above every week, your life would improve by leaps and bounds. What is stopping you? Time? Most of these take no time at all. How long does it take you to feel grateful? How about to do a little deep breathing? There is nothing standing in our way from taking these simple, no-cost actions to improve our life.
Print off the list or save the picture on your phone. Try to work all 11 in through the course of a week. See how much more joy you find. Can you imagine doing all 11 in a single day? Why not? it would take you all of 5 to 10 minutes and serve you a lot better than scrolling mindlessly on your phone. It would still even leave you plenty of time to do that as well should you choose. A beautiful life does not need to cost a lot or be very complicated. It only need a few simple items like those above. What other items can you think of that will not cost a thing and bring you a more beautiful life? Let us know.
How do you start your morning? Do you roll over and check your phone? Do you turn on the news while you get ready? Maybe listen to some talk radio on the way to work? Do you spend time reading something motivational to start the day? Do you spend 5 minutes in quiet reflection or are you running around like crazy?
The next question may sound a little weird, but who do you invite over to your house? Is it just friends and relatives? Do you see strangers of the street and invite them in? When people do come over, how do you expect them to act? Polite and helpful or do as they please? Let me ask you a further question. Whether that person was friend or stranger, if they started throwing trash all over your house, how long before you would ask them to leave? Would it be 5 minutes? Would you wait an entire hour or maybe even a day? Most of us would be alarmed the moment they started it doing it and ask them why. More than likely in a way that cannot be printed here.
When we wake up in the morning and expose ourselves to social media, the television or any other medium, it is the same as inviting strangers into our house. We often do not know what these people will say or do. Will it make us happy, sad or angery? Who knows. Quite often it can be a bunch of negative material. In that case, it is the same as someone coming into our house and littering. We would not allow it in the physical sense. There is no reason we should allow mental littering in our mental house either.
Last post we discussed guarding the gate of our mind. This includes evicting negative tenants. This who little our mind with negativity and gossip. Those who belittle us and others. It is the same as dumping trash in our house. Our minds become cluttered with negative influences and make it hard to enjoy a truly positive life. Next post we are going to look at some powerful ways to live a beautiful life. The great part is that all of them are 100% free! See you next post!
The other morning I was listening to a video by Tony Robbins and I would like to share with you a little of what I got out of that video. In it he referenced Jim Rohn, his mentor. That is where the idea comes from.
The idea revolves around passwords. It seems today we have a password for everything. We have a password for our cellphones. We certainly do not want just anyone being able to get into there! We have passwords for our computer. Even things like online shopping and social media have passwords. Even logging on to the platform I write this blog on has a password. Just in case any of you would want to come on here and write an inspiring post for me. Actually, if you would like to be a guest author, we can work on that.
The one thing that we need to guard does not come with a password. That is our minds. You must stand guard at the gate of your mind. We are almost force-fed information from a variety of sources. We hear the news, family, friends and coworkers just to name a few. Many are like chicken little telling us the sky is falling and how terrible the world is. Some give us gossip about other people that may only be true to some degree or maybe not true at all. We often let this all inside our mind without deciding if it belongs there. We must safeguard our minds my friends. The place between your ears is the most powerful spot in our lives. It deserves just as much guarding as our cell phone or computer. WE decide what goes into our minds. Let us make sure not everyone has the password.
SECRET 2 AN AMAZING LIFE 