Fun! How do we more fully enjoy our lives? I recently heard a commercial represented by Morgan Freeman addressing a health issue; he referenced the product, then he emphasized—‘it’s time to get busy livin’. Yep, he’s right! And, ‘livin’ doesn’t just mean getting rich and powerful.
Despite the bragging of the richest—all that glitters doesn’t always make us happy. Often the allure of ‘the good life’ seduces those whose lives have gorged them with excesses. Without guidelines of moderation, too many lead ‘sugar rush’ lives. It’s great to be super wealthy, it’s just not ‘all that’ without purpose, and, in the end, that purpose revolves around more than money and instant pleasure. An everyday example: Ever get a new ‘toy’? A new car, boat, expensive piece of gear? It’s exciting! But the newness eventually wears off and we’re looking for the next thing, the next prize, to distract us. After a while, though, this can get to be old.
All too often we’re not in a situation of such luxury. We work hard just trying to pay bills and live our lives. We usually settle for what momentarily makes us happy. It could be shopping, gambling, traveling, what keeps us going, but going where? Frequently in circles.
Ever think about some alternatives?
In prior blogs we looked at some of the factors that can strongly impact us, ones we pay little attention to that affect our lives. If we take a little time to assess them, we may see that a few could be affecting us on a deeper level than we realize.
If, in fact it’s true, as many physicists have suggested (Bohr, Jung, Heisenberg), we recognize what we were born for on some level, then it keeps coming back, reminding us until we acknowledge it.
Our internal GPS will take us in the direction programmed inside, but we humans often ignore or deny what our ‘gut’ is telling us. If we insist on ignoring it, we realize, at some point, we may have been in denial and that could take us far off from the right direction. That may have never happened to you, but the likelihood is that it has and at least once or twice in your life, it is all part of the learning journey. Few of us, if any, escape it.
When it occurs, we just need to stop for a minute, take a deep breath, and allow ourselves to recalibrate .In thinking about it, if we consider being open to looking at things differently, we may begin to see things in a different way, at least a bit more than we did before.
Since most self-help articles and books suggest mindfulness, talking to a friend or therapist, or maybe ’just letting it go’. All of that is helpful, but there is even more to your story.
We’re going to look at some of the factors I’ve singled out here that can and do affect us. When we do look at them, we might think about whether we are actually getting closer to our goals and if we can sense or see it. If we don’t see it, it is likely because we haven’t looked past what’s right in front of us.
If we can be open to looking at some of the factors I’ve mentioned, we can get inside ourselves a little more and, maybe, get some valuable new insights.
It can be valuable to explore looking at our lives from a different perspective. I’ve got a drawing (below) that may help us look at things from a different perspective. There is a a light bulb (representing you) and six lines around it with some points I mentioned in prior blogs that are influences in your life. (Chart 1).
All these factors mentioned in Chart 1 represent parts of you–just environment and opportunity are not (well they are too because, as we know, where we were born, to whom, and our economic circumstances inherited when we were born are all in us). As far as the environment goes, I could go on and on about all of the environmental effects on you, The current environment is ‘kinda’ under your control (at least, to the degree you can financially deal with daily life). And the last factor, ‘opportunity’ depends a great deal on luck, but as the old saying goes, ‘the harder I work, the luckier I get.’ Opportunity can depend, to a great degree, on the other six factors, particularly your personality, temperament (andpersonality traits), mental attitude, and external factors, like environment and opportunity).
Chart 1
Our attitude encompasses all of these and can make or stymie our careers). Often, how we view others and how we act are observed by others and judged by them. This can matter.
While life may have inflicted scars, they no longer need to be carried inside us anymore. It may be time to review and rewrite a life plan and then periodically evaluate progress from this point forward.
Chart 2
I made Chart 2 with blank lines so you could fill in them using the factors used in Chapter 1 (or others you may deem important). If you fill it in, look at the factors, how you assigned them priority, and ask yourself how they may affect your life. As you thik about it, feel free to add on anything else underneath them you think may be influencing you. Feel free to print this out so that you can write on it and add whatever ‘floats your boat’. Perhaps, in doing this exercise, it will help bring new thoughts and ideas that had not been seen before.
Now, it’s time to look at all that’s here again, and try to pay a bit more attention to what’s going on around you, and maybe the people in your life.
‘There are no coincidences’. Be more open to possibilities than you think you are; remember if the physicists are right, and they likely are, these possibilities are there inside you already, so let them out!
This can be a fun exercise that just might get you thinking about all this, and even get you out of a rut if you’ve been in one recently. But after you’ve done this, be open and honest with yourself and be willing to step out of your comfort zone.
C’mon…doesn’t everyone need a little more adventure in their lives?
“Do not breathe just to breathe.“
(Mattie Sobrano).
