Your life is seventy to eighty years generally, but let's call it fifty good years because the first twenty you're a child and after seventy (if you make it that far) things start to fall apart generally.
Are you plugged into it?
Quite frankly, I don't give a shit if you're not; that's your own business and your own choice.
I care about my own though and so I work very hard at being plugged into it - living it the best I can, making smart, sensible and productive decisions, working on relationships, myself and living in the present while planning the future.
Those things are different for everyone - some are happy with mediocrity, comfortable playing the victim and some are happy living a life of expectation and entitlement - I am none of those.
Here's nine of the many personal mindset choices I've made in my life which have contributed to a good life, comfortable, successful and fulfilled:
- Strength of mind and character: Staying strong when challenges and adversity strike helps a person push forward.
- Identify the right mentors and influences: Learning from the right people all the way through life is my ethos.
- Health as a priority: I mean physical, emotional and mental health here - it's critical.
- Be true to your word and reliable: I do what I say I'll do, I "show up" and I do so with integrity as I see it.
- Gratitude and thankfulness: This incorporates being responsible for my own life and thankful for what that responsibility and effort brings.
- Grow and develop: When these things stop life stops, or so I believe.
- Fix, don't blame and complain: Ownership and discipline is the vehicle that carries a person forward more than complaining and blaming ever will. Find solutions.
- Calculated and clever risks: If a person never tries a person will never succeed. Cast off the fear of failure and embrace the moment knowing that failure is simply another lesson to learn from.
- Goal setting: A person with no clear, measurable, realistic and time-oriented goals is floundering in the dark. Learn how to set them and make plans to attain them.
Many things combined to deliver the life I have but it's not gone completely to plan. I didn't come from a privileged family - we were quite poor actually. It's not been easy and no, I've not gone from one success to the other. I've tasted failures on a massive scale, felt unable to carry on, been beaten down so hard I thought I'd not recover...but I stood up and kept going, difficult though it was.
I celebrate the good and learn from the bad. I shun negativity and negative people. I take ownership and follow a solutions-focused ethos and I work hard at what I do including the fun things like travel, relaxation, hobbies, my relationships and such things; they are valuable and so I treat them as such.
I'm plugged into my life, I feel comfortable to say that due to my efforts and I feel happy for others who say the same.
What about you? Are you plugged into your life?
What of the nine items above do you employ to improve and maintain your life? What others do you have and if you're not doing any of this then why and how has that impacted your life. Also, the things I write above don't take any money to do so for those living in third-world countries with poor economies don't have an excuse not to do them...just putting that out there.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
[Original and AI free]
Image(s) in this post are my own
Reading he title of your post, I thought I will have to say I am not plugged into my life. I guess I didn't understand what you meant. From your list I can safely say I apply more than half of them. I don't seem to set goals though. Perhaps I should, donno. But I apply:
Honestly, I never really thought of such a list. But it helps. I should be more conscious about this.
In addition to the list, I apply at least the following:
So YES, I am plugged in! 😉
You are probably at the higher end of the scale with being engaged with your life and it's nice to see you have identified some areas for improvement, that's the first step to actually improving.
I like the one you said, apply humor, there's not enough of it in the society we live in.
Becca 🌷
Thank you. 100%. I may go overboard sometimes.
The more serious a convo gets, the more I am driven to apply at least some humour. I do this especially at work, and preferably also when I am with a prospect or customer. In private life, I am a bit more careful, since it may hurt someone's feelings. Though, I still go for the humour.
In essence, humour ensures people realise life doesn't stop, regardless the situation we/they are in, regardless of the severity of a situation and/or feeling. It also helps to bring negativity back to neutral or - even better - positivity. The trick is to doze humour such that it doesn't become annoying to others.
There is the right time to use humor and the wrong; knowing one from the other is important but I feel much of the time people forget to use it completely. My guy is a very serious man when he needs to be; he has an amazingly humorous side though and knows when to use it to the best advantage. It's something that most girls look for in a man usually, a man with a sense of humor and the ability to use that correctly is very attractive.
Becca 🌷
Thanks for those words and your insight into what girls/women look for in a man.
I'll check with my new girlfriend how she feels. I suppose she is in that category since she said to me: Don't change.
You're lucky, if she's happy with how you are then you're in a good place.
Becca 🌷
It's good to see you're plugged in and definitely think about applying some specific, measurable and timed goals, it's something to aim for and if the goal is the right one, you'll do what's required to action the plan you set down to achieve it.
I like your additional ones too, very good indeed.
Goal and Plan. I make a mantra out of this, so I'll start with that. Thanks for the little extra push.
No worries, good luck.
I think I do a lot of those, expecially goals and keep your word, i get pissed off when people don't keep their word, for me it's sacre giving the word, if you can't respect it don't give it...
I also make plans, if there are goals or issues, the first thing is calculate a plan A, then at the same time a plan B, because you know often things don't go as planned so better keep a second one
Health is not easy, some slaps kill the morale and without morale, phisical health falls aswell, and vice versa, bad phisical brings bad mental one
One of the most irksome things is when people do not keep their word or do what they say they would do; I find I drift away from people like that because the people I want around me need to feel reliable.
Becca 🌷
Me too, I mean if you can't keep a word don't give it, it's ok for me receiving a No if one can't keep it up, but don't disappoint me with a Yes that turns into a No
Physical health is pretty important; when it's good a person feels more able to cope with complexities and adversity compared to when they don't feel physically fit as you allude to. There's also a nice feeling derived from being physically active. But sure, it's one of the areas that is most neglected in a lot of cases.
"Mens sana in corpore sano" that's what they say and is true
I'll be honest, I used to be really plugged into it. Was unplugged I guess for about 3-4 years or so. Just getting plugged back into this last few months again. Feels good to be plugged in. The alternative is to walk through life as dead weight taking up space.
It's quite sad that so many people seem ok with weighing themselves down with unimportant things and unproductive thoughts and attitudes. People focus on the wrong things, hold on too long to them and are reluctant to step out of the shadow they create for themselves. It's nice to hear that you're on the right path.
Becca 🌷
Oh Dear Becca, You make my heart feel good this morning. Thank you. The right path is being followed again and it is hard, but worth it.
You're someone who doesn't turn away from something just because it's hard, my guy is the same, and so things move forward and towards better outcomes as you say above. It's a good way to be, the best way really.
Becca 🌷
That's great to hear. I mean, plugged into the matrix is shite, but being plugged in, engaged with one's life and passionate about a best-life scenario is certainly going to help a person do what's required to attain it.
Nice work.
Yeah, gonna get out today if it snows and grab some snaps. Been dull and grey around here lately with it being winter. We need some color to liven things up for the walks.
Being connected to life is what makes it truly living and not just passing through this world as if it were nothing.
The nine points are the right ones, many of them I apply, I will mention gratitude as something excellent that takes away the negative and learning from the right people, those mentors you mention, smart people, people who not only talk but do and I can see the results and the consistency in their life.
Another thing I thought of when I was reading the list is the importance of being authentic, genuine, being yourself, doing what you love to do and seeing in it all the details that make life so beautiful and special, because there is only one life... then well... there are other things.
Most people ar by as authentic as they think they are, there's so much influence from external sources that people generally don't have an individual and unique thought these days.
It would be necessary to live isolated from everything, far from the cities, perhaps the means of communication.
Calculated and clever risks is probably the one I struggle with the most. I prefer to play it safe and I wish that wasn't the case sometimes since we only get one chance at this life.
Many do the same and results are commensurate to that ethos. Taking risks can be confronting sometimes, but it's over those lines that some of the best results and outcomes are.
I think the first one (Strength of mind and character) feels closer to heart because ironically, it's something that cannot be taught and is best trained only when one encounters some form of hardship. And as humans, we don't actively find hardships to experience. Looking back, I think it was "fortunate" that I went through some hardships in the recent years, and those experiences have made me mentally stronger today.
Adversity is a good teacher, and way to find the elements required to expand the paradigm.
Reliability is a rare currency. I try to employ goal setting and calculated risks the most, mainly because without a clear target, it's too easy to drift into that mediocrity you mentioned. Tomorrow isn't promised, so sitting around complaining is just a waste of a finite resource
I don't like people who incessantly complain and whine. We all do it from time to time but there's those who continually complain and don't take any action to rectify the situations they complain about.
Fix and don't complain, I love that quote or I believe it's a perfect illustration of be proactive constantly no matter the forthcoming. When it becomes bad we do continue moving, never to be disturbed by the outcome.
It's a good one.
Being true to ones words is something so many people cam keep too. That's why they do ask for accountability for records sake. When they say A let be A not B afterwards. Thank you for these writings. It's a master piece
No worries.