73-- 364 Days and Counting

I want you to ask yourself "What would I do if I only had one year to live?". I heard this posed to an audience last night. It really hit me that this was a great philosophy to live by.

Just to clarify: I am not talking about sky-diving, smacking a bull in the ass or any other such potentially life-ending endeavours. I am talking about serious, legitimate goals that you would work for those last 52 weeks to see to their end. What would it be? Education? Instill some value or ideal in your kids? Start a business? Finish a project? Each of us has different goals in life, sometimes they overlap, sometimes they are vastly different. Whatever you would do, the premise of this excercise is to change your attitude toward the way you are living now, to the way you would like to live.

When you were young, if you had a definitive goal, did you stick to it? Did you vary from the path you wanted by making compromises? I always wanted to be a writer/journalist/columnist. I wound up doing many things along the way because I wanted to try them. I put my dream on hold and believe me, it's a long road back to the start. What did you dream of? Family? A career? Building a home? Whatever your goal or dream was, did you attain it? Again, this is not about life-taking risk, it is about the attainment of a life-goal or goals by training your mind to think in a different way. It is about creating new neural pathways, counteracting your old mind-set. Every time you make a compromise, your mind becomes trained to accept that compromise. The most successful people have lived their lives making very little compromise in the attainment of their goals.

Attaining your goals does not mean hurting those around you or those you encounter along the way. It can be as simple as taking a walk. The speaker told of his ups and downs with weight over the years and as he approached forty he was quite over-weight. He set his mind(notice I didnt say"vowed") to walk for an hour every day. He stuck with it through whatever came his way. If that meant that he had to walk at midnight or 1 am, that's what he did, but he did it every day. In his first last year of life, he lost 40 pounds. He ate half in whatever portion of food he would normally eat, not just diet food. Oh and he drank a lot of water. Other than that, he stuck with his plan and attained that goal. He then set a plan for his home and then his business and eventually attained them as well. All of this was made possible by setting his mind to the tune of "This is my last year on this earth. I have 365 days left and "this" is what I must do."

Can you do it? Will you compromise? Will you even pick a goal and start? That is up to you. The speaker put it like this: If you continually live in a certain way, regardless of whether you dont like it and want to change it, that is the life you WANT to lead. If you didnt want to live like that, you would resolve to change it. Half-hearted attempts dont count. You started______, and then quit. You didnt really WANT to change it.

It's not about taking big steps, either. It's about taking what you're comfortable with. If you can only take baby steps, that's okay. You want a better job? Find a way to sacrifice the time and money to get an education, re-education or further instruction to that end. Well, that's a bit step. How about cutting your portions in half if you want to lose weight? That's both easy and hard. You can pretty much eat normally, just look at what you're about to eat and only eat half or use a smaller plate.

Adjust your steps and STICK WITH THEM! Remember: DONT COMPROMISE!! If you decide to walk a half hour or hour every day, find a way to do it, even when the weather's crappy. Marriage or relationship problems? Resolve to TALK every day for a set amount of time. Turn the t.v. off for the set period and TALK to each other. You'll be surprised how many relationship problems can be resolved just by talking it out and not judging each other's HONEST answers.

Oh, before I forget: Keep a log or journal of positive things you do each day. It can be as simple as writing a small bit on a calendar, but write something each day. Keeping even a small log can be beneficial to your psyche. Only put positive things down even if it's "got all the housework done" or "cleaned out one of the junk boxes" or "read _____ book/manual for self-help/education/fun". STICK TO YOUR GUNS!!! You can accomplish your goals if you dont compromise, dont quit and believe you can do it. How bad do you want it?

As a final excercise, If you feel like it, leave a comment and tell me what your goal would be if you only had a year to live. Wake up tomorrow and tell yourself this is the last Friday, January 22 that I'll ever see. It's not depressing, after you have resolved yourself that your time is short and therefore valuable, you will become more motivated, more driven, to attain your goals. Start with one goal in mind and when you accomplish it-celebrate yourself. You can use this method with everything in your life. Again, if you can, leave me a comment and let me know what you are going to start with. Roz and I are going to walk, whether indoors or out, for a half hour(for now, maybe more next week) and we will half our portions at mealtime. Good luck and remember we are here to support each other!!!