Live the Dream

     Every day it seems that there is a news story of someone who has lost their life.  It is tragic and often sad to hear about the demise of another human being. Life is a gift and unfortunately the loss of life is the worst reminder of all to that fact.  Reality is we will all lose our life in the end but living our life while we have it is a seemingly rare event.  Too many of us have decided somehow to merely exist.

    With that reminder ask yourself how can you be given this gift and not maximize it?  In my opinion, if you aren’t maximizing the experience of life you merely exist.  Sure we can all get caught up in the myriad of routines and just getting things done.  Our current circumstances and our perceived limitations can also discourage us.  We can begin to believe that this is the best that we can do because we have tried and failed so many times. Any of these things can lead to us merely existing.

Do Not Merely Exist

      My request to you is to look into the window of your soul with a truthful eye and ask yourself; do I merely exist?  Are you maximizing the life you have been given or are you going through the motions?   Going through the motions can be described as just surviving.  You pay your bills, you eat your meals, you go to work, and you come home and watch TV. 

      Yes, every now and then you go on vacation or you go out and have some fun, but you don't do either nearly enough.  You've stopped gaining knowledge and you've stopped growing as a person.  Your relationships are no longer growing.  You've lost your passion.  You've become pessimistic, which you have decided to call being realistic.  That is the definition of existing.

The Definition of Living the Dream

     Living the dream involves determining what your passions are and then following them.  It involves you sharing your gifts with the world in an effort to make this world a better place just because of your existence.  Living the dream is finding a way to experience love to its greatest extent.   It is being at peace with decisions you make, have made or will make.  It is being able to truly forgive so that you can move forward.  Living the dream is always being aware and mindful.  It is taking every failure as an opportunity to learn and make you a better person.  It is being optimistic that the gift of life was bestowed upon you because you deserve to live a good life.  Living the dream is knowing you are a creator and creators create.  Living the dream is a belief that you are the right person, at the right place, at the right time.   Living the dream means you will continue to grow until your last breath on this earth.

     Many people wrongfully believe an abundance of money is required to live the dream.  Money may make life better because of the access it provides but it doesn’t guarantee you will be living the dream.  Living the dream is much deeper that money.  It is also much deeper that other people’s perceptions, thoughts or actions.  Living the dream is something you own.  It is a mindset.  It is a mindset that will ultimately help determine your success in life.

Every Moment Counts

     The only guarantee we have in life is that nothing is guaranteed.  You can be here today and gone tomorrow.  You can be living the dream or merely existing.  Unfortunately too many people have chosen either consciously or subconsciously to merely exist.  You should strive to live the dream.  You should not strive to live the dream just for a day, week, month, year or decade.  You should strive to live the dream moment by moment.   Life is built off of moments. 

     When you merely exist you find yourself losing out on so many moments of life.   Some of you fall into the trap of believing it will change when some significant moment will happen.  You’ll be living the dream when you get married.  You’ll be living the dream when you get promoted.  You’ll be living the dream when your business explodes.  You’ll be living the dream once you get your bills paid.  You’ll be living the dream when you go on vacation this summer.  I could go on and on with examples of milestones we place on life that we believe will make things better.

      The funny thing about life is it can better in an instant.  The instant you decide to believe your life is better it will be.  The reason that statement is true is because no one else can decide how good your life is because no one else can think for you.  You can think of life any way you want to. You own your own mindset.  Don’t let your outside circumstances dictate your mindset.  If you’re life isn’t exactly where you want it to be then take a moment to acknowledge that it can be if you put your mind to it.  Then look for every little example you can that your life is getting better.  Each one of those moments where you believe your life is getting better will change the way you think.  Those moments will build up and multiply.  Those moments will grow so large that you will find yourself living the dream much sooner than you think.

Actions You Should Take

       Now it may seem daunting to determine where to start living the dream.  Your life has different circumstances in different areas of your life. If you aren't sure where to start here's some advice on how to start.

Ø  Pick an area of your life you'd like to work on (Emotional, Occupational, Physical, Spiritual, Intellectual, Social)¹

Ø  Think about how that area of your life is now and how you'd like it to be. Do not take this lightly.  Really spend time delving into your thoughts about the area you chose.

Ø  Write down your goal for that area of your life.  Writing down lets your subconscious mind know you are serious.

Ø  Take action towards reaching your goal.  Remember it is a mindset; therefore you need to be taking actions that improve your mindset.  Set reminders, build plans, create new habits, and reach out to experts for advice.  You decide on an action and take it.  Take many actions.  Doing something is always better than doing nothing.

Ø  Believe.

       We’ve been given a rare gift and that is the gift of living this life.  Take action now to make sure you aren’t doing that gift a disservice by merely existing.  Take action now to change your mindset to live the dream. Good luck and I look forward to hearing about how you are living the dream.  Use the hashtag #livethedream to let the world know you are doing so.  As always enjoy the journey!

With gratitude,

Drew

¹The Six Dimensions of Wellness, 1976 Bill Hettler, MD, Co-Founder, National Wellness Institute

See People

"See people not for who they are but for who they can become."  This is a great quote from an unknown author.  Two topics of interest come to mind when I ready this quote – optimism and empathy. 

Optimism - defined as an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome.

Empathy - defined as the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner. 

     No matter whom you are or where you work you have to interact with people every day.  Some of those interactions are from afar and some of those interactions are very close.  Based on those interactions you have seen that we are all a little different from each other.  We are all at different stages of our careers, our relationships, our health, our knowledge, so and so on. 

     Some of those differences are small in nature and some are drastic.  The small ones usually are barely noticed or hardly thought about.  However, the drastic ones have the possibility to have an impact on how we see that other person.  How we see that person can have an impact on the actions we take both positive and negative.  Negative actions produce negative results and positive actions produce positive results.

      Since we have the ability to choose, I am a big proponent of choosing the positive.  That is where the optimism kicks in.  However, in order to see the positive you are going to have to have the ability to be empathetic.  That often is a much harder task.  It takes a certain skill to show empathy.  Those of us who master it are much more successful than those of us who do not.

     The potential to be great is within us all.  Once you acknowledge that fact it becomes much easier to see.  You will do the work to see the world through someone else’s eyes and then be optimistic that if they haven’t achieved greatness, they still have the opportunity to do so.  We all do.  Those positive thoughts will lead to positive actions and ultimately positive results.  That collective thinking will lead to many positive results and ultimately a better life for us all. 

    For the rest of the week do me a favor and explore how you are seeing other people.  If you don’t see them as great, think about their own unique situation and how they ultimately could be great.  See them as they could be and not as they currently are.  You may be surprised how beneficial those positive thoughts will be to both you and them.

Have a good week and as always enjoy the journey!

With gratitude,

Drew

Thousands of Reasons

Thousands of Reasons

If every morning,

You can find a reason to say,
“Yes, it’s going to be a beautiful day.”

And every day, you can find a reason to say,

“Yes, it is a beautiful day.”

 And every night, you find a reason to say,

“Yes, it was a beautiful day.”

Then one day,

You’ll look back and easily say,
“Yes..it was a beautiful life.”

By Doe Zantamata

     The key to a beautiful life is your mindset.  I'm sure you've heard many keys to life from many experts or just people with opinions.  There is no debate that there are many keys and many ways to intertwine those keys to make your life beautiful.  Eating healthy, having good relationships, saving money, having integrity .... the list goes on and on.   However, I believe it all boils down to your mindset.  That is the basis of what this poem means to me. You get to decide whether your life if beautiful right now.  You get to make that decision every day.  Your life is beautiful.  You can command it.  You can demand it.  You can acknowledge it.  It is a mindset.

     Yes, life may throw some hurdles at you along the way.  The best way to handle a hurdle is to attack it head on.  You have to explode out of the blocks with the mentality that you will successfully clear each and every hurdle along your race.  Sure you may clip a few of those hurdles and they may slow you down.  You may even hit one of the hurdles so hard that it causes you to fall down.  If you do fall down you will get back up.  If you do slow down you will also speed back up.  You will if you have the right mindset.  Do not let the hurdles determine the beauty of your life.
     

     Your life is beautiful.  You have so much to be grateful for.  You have so many reasons to know you have a beautiful life.  Yet too many times we let life’s hurdles slow us down to the point where we don’t get up.  The only way to get better at getting over life's hurdles is to practice and prepare for them.  That’s what the 3 approaches in the poem are doing.  They are preparing you to have a beautiful life.  They are building your mindset muscles so they are strong and full of endurance. By practicing these 3 different approaches you will make sure your mindset is well conditioned to take you down the path of the beautiful life you deserve.  You will be prepared to encounter every hurdle along your path.

     Tomorrow morning wake up and affirm it’s going to be a beautiful day.  I recommend you don’t initially rely on your memory to do this either.  I recommend the first time you decide to implement this action you make yourself a reminder.  You know what works best for you but here are some great examples to follow.

1.     Write it on a 3x5 card and put the card on your dresser or sink before you go to bed.  You will see it first thing in the morning and read it.  “Today is going to be a beautiful day.”

2.     If you are tied to your phone put a calendar reminder in your personal calendar.  Just put the topic “Today is going to be a beautiful day” and make sure you repeat the occurrence for a week to a month. 

3.     Tell your spouse or significant other how important this is to you and have them send you a text every morning as a reminder.

Those are just some examples.  I’m sure you can come up with your own if none of them work for you.

      At lunch tomorrow take a moment to acknowledge the beauty of the day.  Make it a point to decide that something you see, taste, touch, hear or feel is beautiful.  It shouldn’t be hard you just have to be mindful.  You have to be aware.  You can’t be a zombie just going through the motions.  That piece of shrimp in your salad tastes beautiful.  The fact that you made it through the first half of the day without issue is beautiful.  That fact that you are halfway finished from going home is beautiful.  Yes you can see that the day is beautiful if you just open your eyes and use your mind.
 

     Tomorrow night, right before you go to bed, think about the things that made that day beautiful.  This is the time that a journal can come in handy.  You can actually write down 3 things that you are grateful for today.  Those things will help you see how beautiful the day really was.  Maybe you already have a routine from childhood that you can tap into like saying your prayers before going to bed.  If so you must make sure those prayers express gratitude for the beauty of that day.  Practicing gratitude before bed will have the added benefit of making you sleep better according to many scientific studies.
 

    All of this may seem like a lot of hard work but I can tell you from experience the return on investment is amazing.  You will build a mindset that will ensure the success and beauty of life that you desire.  Life is a long journey with many hurdles.  The right mindset will help you clear the majority of them.  It will also help you get up from any fall so that you can get on with the your journey and the beautiful life you deserve.  So go out and make these changes now without delay.  If you do so will find much more beauty to enjoy throughout life including watching this year’s Olympic Games in Rio, especially the hurdle events.

As always enjoy the journey and remember everything you need is already within you.

Drew