There is a modern adage that says we should treat each day as if it is the first day of our life. The corollary to that is that we should live each day as if it were our last, and this may be closer to the secret of living fully each and every day.
Embrace your mmortality
If you love life, and life is precious to you, you don’t want to die. However, recognizing that death eventually comes to each of us should be the real secret to living fully, and yet it eludes most people. Facing our immortality is difficult; we cannot imagine a world without us. But if you actually did face the fact that you are only here for a short while, how much easier would it be to enjoy and embrace each moment of each day? If one of your goals was to raise happy, well-adjusted children, why are you stopping every Friday night for a beer with the guys? If you died on the way home, which would you feel better about, that you spent a night with folks you barely know, or that you spent the last night of your life in the bosom of your loving family?
Recognize what is important in your life
It is really baffling that most people, when asked what the most important things in their lives are, will reply their family and their health. And yet, they spend countless hours away from their families on frivolous matters. They waste precious time they could be spending with their children playing golf with people they don’t like, watching mind numbing T.V. shows or shopping for clothes and household items they don’t really need. The same folks who say their health is important to them may smoke, drink and eat too much and find it difficult to put in a day or two a week on exercise. Sit down right now and make a list of what is important in your life, and then, honestly and critically, analyze how much time you spend on those items.
Only waste your time on the important things
Once you have this insight, you can start to live purposefully and fully by incorporating it into your day as much as possible. Granted, we all have to work and earn a living; it is our spare time and down time that we are discussing now. Is it so important to bake five pies for Thanksgiving or Christmas and tell your children to stay out of your hair because you are so busy? How about buying pies and taking the kids for a sleigh ride? (Or, better yet, find ways to incorporate the two, by having your children help with your baking.) You claim your health is important, yet you start the day with a coffee and a cigarette instead of a bowl of whole grain cereal and a morning walk.
To live fully, your mind and your body must be in harmony. Your body is too busy with inconsequential matters to spend time with your children, and yet your mind says family is the most important thing to you. Your body is destroying itself with smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise, and yet you claim that your health is important.
Take a moment today, now, to spend every moment you can on the important things in your life before your life is over.
No matter how important the person issues are, you got to take attention to the financial issues as well to live fully. For example, do you know your credit score range? Do you know, if you got fired today, how much time do you have to survive with your backup funds? Have at least the elementary things set up so in case a crisis struck, you don’t have to change your entire lifestyle.