So, What Should I Be Doing Differently?

How is it that life seems to go by so fast?  How is it that we more often than not look back on our life - the things we did and what we became - with a measure of regret, knowing that we could have been more or contributed more?  Have you ever stopped to think of what makes life happen?  It is actually a pretty simple equation:  TIME + EXPERIENCES  = LIFE.  Now I know that is an oversimplification, but stay with me.  If we can accept that life is the combination of time and experiences, then wouldn’t solving the issue of making one’s life fuller and more meaningful be easier to understand?  Time is measurable and predictable and we all have the same amount each and every day.  Experiences, be they physical, observational or thoughts, are essentially the sum total of what we do with the time given to us each day.  So, what can we do to make our time and experiences produce a rich, fruitful and contented life? Many of the thoughts we based this important conversation on were derived from the book, “The Power of Consistency” written by Weldon Long.  Throughout the book, Mr. Long shares pieces of his amazing personal story that chronicle his journey from being a prison inmate to being a terrific dad and an amazingly successful business entrepreneur.  As you might guess, he made this journey by applying specific principles to his life with undying consistency. Consistency.  If you want to know what you should do differently to change your life, consistency will always show up as a primary and necessary ingredient.  This you can count on.  The opposite is also true - consistency will always be "MIA" – missing in action - when failure to change occurs. This is one of those unwritten life rules that is always true and that no one likes because it takes discipline.  Ugh!  Discipline is another one of those nasty words that upsets our comfort zone.  Face it, if we are going to talk about making our lives better then we need to accept consistency and discipline as parts of our better life vocabulary. Okay, we want to make our lives better, so where do we start?  Simply stated, we need to start by honestly looking at where we are in our lives right now.  It’s kinda like being in one of those huge malls and trying to get our bearings.  We look at the big mall map that has the red arrow pointing to a specific spot with the message “You are here,” and we can now figure out how to get to where we what to go.  In real life, finding where we are so we know how to get to our destination is obviously a bit more challenging.  To do it we actually need to observe what we daily do and think to keep our equilibrium – to keep ourselves on what we feel is an even keel.  Once we begin to understand what makes us feel even and comfortable we can then truly begin to grasp what our individual next step might be. What might that next step be?  Check out our January 2, 2017 podcast, “So what should I be doing differently?” and find out.  Listening just might be the beginning of something great!