L.I.F.E.

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L. I. F. E

Imagine. . . Your L.I.F.E.—On Purpose!

Living = So much more than drawing breath, so much more than surviving another day…
Experiencing Excellence!L.I.F.E., The 8 F's

Intentionally = On Purpose, By Design, Gaining Desired Results

for

Excellence = Above Average, Much More Than Ordinary,
The Best You Can Be!

Increasing in The “8 F’s”
Faith, Family, Finance, Fitness, Friends, Following, Freedom, Fun

L.I.F.E.—Equipping YOU with Tools that will Challenge and Empower you to:
v      Accomplish Great Things—for yourself and others
v      Understand Life’s Truths
v      Make Money
v      Have Fun
v      Make a Difference!
v      Start Now to Leave a Legacy for Future Generations!

 

Climbing or Crawling?

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You’ve seen successful people.

They look like they found an extremely tall ladder sometime in their childhood, put their foot on the first rung, and haven’t stopped climbing since. They are attractive. They have money. People like them. They are unstoppable.

And then there are the other kind of people–those who never even learned how to walk.

They struggle along on their hands and knees, not because they are begging for help, but rather because they truly lack the knowledge, ability, and skills to stand up. Climbing the ladder, for them, is not yet an option. So they crawl.

Which set of people will accomplish more with their lives? It is impossible to tell!

Although some people may seem to have life easy and don’t seem to struggle in achieving their goals, what determines who will accomplish more with their lives is how much effort is put into the task.

If you are only crawling at this point in your life don’t give up! Keep learning. Keep practicing. Find a teacher or two (or more) to lean on while you strengthen your legs.

Take those first faltering steps. Then learn to run. And as you wobble out on your own keep searching for that ladder. When you find it set your sights on the top of it.

You will someday reach that height.

Crawl Faster, Climb Higher!

Your Dreams List

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You have a dreams list, right? A place where you write down everything you want in life? An uncensored brain dump of all that you desire?

“Why would I want on of those? I don’t have the money to purchase a Spanish Villa on the Mediterranean. I don’t have the time to become fluent in French. I don’t know the right people to put me in contact with Donald Trump. Why would I want to torture myself that way?”

Maybe you don’t have all those things. That’s why they are dreams. Future expectations. Something you hope for. But not impossibilities.

I challenge you to make a Dreams List. Write down everything you want. Physical, emotional, spiritual, relational, experiential, financial, and, hey, why not, political. Everything!

Don’t think about the cost. Don’t think about the location. Don’t think about the time commitment. Don’t think about the resources. Don’t think about the connections. Think ONLY about the desires.

Write them down. WRITE them down, in your own handwriting. There is a connection made between the sight of your own handwriting and your brain and also between the physical act of writing and the brain. You will bond more deeply with your own handwriting than you will with a printed page or computer screen.

(Of course thinking about your desires may seem strange to some people. And, I suppose, you could get weird with your list, but be sure that your desires line up with your morals and you will be okay.)

Make your Dreams List. Read it every day. Live your LIFE on purpose. Make things happen! Then, dream bigger!

Get Your Insides Wet!

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That title sounds so much better than “Why You Should Drink More Water,” doesn’t it?

Part of living your life on purpose is taking control of your health. It is way too easy to warm up a frozen dinner in the evening, feast on fast food for lunch, and skip breakfast altogether. This will get you by, but it won’t get you to the top. In fact, it will keep you about average for quite awhile then (seemingly) suddenly it will drag you to the bottom until you either find the right medical treatment or enough faith to recover from whatever sickness or disease is affecting you.

One thing you can do to improve your health, basically without even trying, is to drink more water. Water is so easy to get. Grab a cup, a glass, or a water bottle, walk to the sink, the water cooler, or the refrigerator, fill up your container, and drink it down.

You can even have a cup sitting on your desk, in the cup holder of your car, in your backpack, or some other convenient place to be able to take a drink of water whenever you want.

But why would you want to do that? Soda and juice are so much sweeter. Energy drinks give you a burst of energy you need to make it through the day. Even milk has more flavor than plain old water!

Before I tell you all the great benefits of drinking water here is a list of symptoms of dehydration (when you don’t have enough water in your body.)

  • You’ll be thirsty (of course)
  • You can lose your appetite
  • You may experience dry skin and your skin may have a flushed appearance
  • Your urine may be decreased and have a dark color to it, it may even smell worse than it should
  • Your mouth may be dry
  • You may be fatigued or weak
  • You may experience head rushes or dizziness
  • Your heart rate may increase and you can have a hard time breathing
  • Your body temperature may increase and you may experience chills
  • You may experience muscle cramps and headaches
  • You could become nauseous

These are just some of the symptoms of dehydration. Doesn’t seem worth it to not drink enough water, does it?

On the other hand, staying well hydrated has tremendous advantages.

  • It can help you to lose weight. Not only will you not be consuming high calorie drinks in place of water, but water also has the effect of suppressing your appetite so that you are less likely to over-eat.
  • Being well hydrated reduces your risk of a heart attack. Not to mention the added benefit of the weight loss factor on in the previous point.
  • Being well hydrated can give you more energy. It also makes exercise easier.
  • Being well hydrated can decrease the likelihood of you getting headaches. You’ll just plain feel better!
  • Drinking water makes your skin healthier. Well hydrated skin is not dry, has a healthy looking glow and is less likely to have problems with acne and blemishes.
  • Drinking water can decrease digestive problems. And cutting out carbonated beverages has the added benefit of reducing gas and bloating.
  • A well-hydrated body flushes out toxins more easily. This can have the added benefit of reducing your risks of various diseases.

So, what do you think? Are you going to get your insides wet?

 

Think and Grow

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You may be familiar with the Napoleon Hill book, Think and Grow Rich. That is a great idea!

But what about the other areas of your life? While financial growth is awesome and incredibly helpful for accomplishing many things, growth in other life areas is very necessary also.

Growth doesn’t just happen, though. Well, physical growth does, but not necessarily the kind of physical growth we desire. And what about mental, spiritual, relational, and emotional growth? How does that kind of growth happen?

It begins by thinking about it. By hearing a new concept, by observing a new way of dealing with something, by thinking, meditating, and considering things and ideas.

Think and grow. Apply your brain power to every situation. Most challenges in our lives eventually work themselves out somehow. Not always the way we wanted them to, but they do get resolved. What would happen if you applied yourself to solving those problems? If you learned how to think?

I am not talking about worry. Worry can take you down a dark, unproductive path that will cause you harm, not growth. I am talking about thinking. Learning the skill of seeing a problem from many different viewpoints. Of applying the knowledge that you have to that problem and working at it until a better solution is found.

If it isn’t the best possible solution then keep at it. Gain some new knowledge. Keep applying your thoughts  until you are satisfied that you have thought through every scenario. Then challenge yourself to think of new ones.

Think, think, think. And grow!

I Know Where You Will Be This Time Next Year…

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Many people are setting “New Year’s Resolutions” today. They are looking at their lives and choosing the things they dislike about them then they are saying they will change. They will lose the extra 20 pounds, spend more time with their children, finally get their desk (closet, house, car, fill in the blank) organized.

They say they will…But, will they?

I know where you will be this time next year. Maybe not your physical location, but I know where you will be with your resolutions. You will be exactly where you have determined to be. Exactly where you have decided to be. Exactly where you have put in the effort to be.

Sadly, for many people, you will be exactly where you are right now–or perhaps even worse!

It is easy to SAY we will change. I’ve done it for years. That 50 pounds I put on with my first pregnancy? Still have it. And my “baby” will be 24 years old this year. Yikes!

Now, I could tell you all the reasons why those pounds are still there. I could tell you about the stress of unemployment and failed businesses. I could tell you about the additional 6 pregnancies and the death and miscarriages of 3 of my children. I could tell you about the health problems. I could tell you about all my excuses, but the fact still remains is that I have about 50 extra pounds I need to get rid of!

There are other areas of my life that need improvement, that need change. There are other areas of my life that need my attention, my effort, my commitment to work on them. And, honestly, to look at them all at once makes me feel tired and apathetic.

But to pick just one. To commit today to work on just one. To concentrate my energy on that one area. To change, to improve, to actually follow through on what I say I will do…What a difference that will make!

No excuses, no reasons, no lying to myself or to others. Just one change on just one day.

Tomorrow I will choose again.

Will you?

 

Weed

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We are approaching the end of another year. In just a few weeks 2011 will be history. And in the first few hours of 2012 many of us will participate in the time-honored tradition of setting new year’s resolutions. We will evaluate our lives, decide what we don’t like about our attitudes or actions, and resolve to change some things.

Sigh…Or will we?

When a garden grows in fertile soil the vegetables gather all the needed nutrients from the sunlight, the soil, and the water. But so do weeds. Left untended the weeds will grow faster and stronger than the desirable plants and can steal the life-giving sustenance from the good plants.

So a diligent gardener sets aside time to remove the weeds from his garden. He searches them out while they are small and yanks them out of the ground before they have a chance to harm his valuable food crops.

But, too often, in the garden of our lives, we wait for the new year, or tomorrow, or Monday, or…We don’t pull the weeds while they are small. The weeds of self-sabotage, guilt, laziness, anger, poor eating habits, lack of financial discipline, etc. We allow them to grow so instead of being a small seedling that can be plucked by hand we have a massive tangle of weeds that require a backhoe to just plow under the field to start from scratch.

When the weeds in our lives become that out of control it may be best to work on one at a time. One weed. One bad habit, one wrong attitude, one thought process that leads us to make bad choices. One at a time.

Choose one, just one, and resolve to change it. Start today. If it is important enough to change why wait another 18 days to start? Start now!

Work on that one weed for a week or a month or even for the entire year. Be diligent about that one weed. Just one.

Then, when that one weed has been eliminated from your garden–your life–work on another one. Then another, and another, and another. Soon you will be to the place where you will only have small seedlings to pluck up every now and then.

Weed your life, and watch it flourish!

 

Left Intentionally Blank

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Have you ever received a bill or bank statement with multiple pages and on one of the pages is printed the words “This Page Left Intentionally Blank?” For some reason I find this funny.

We are always searching for information, whether we realize it or not, so the businesses that provide us with these documents feel it is their responsibility to inform us that we won’t find what we are looking for on THIS page. And we won’t find it theire INTENTIONALLY.

I suspect we have “pages” in our lives like that. “Pages”–days, weeks, months, years–that we leave blank. Time when we just get by, don’t accomplish much, and don’t do anything significant worth recalling for future reference.

Do we do this intentionally? Sometimes, yes. My son got married last month. The days prior to the big event were a whirlwind of activity, the actual wedding day had me going from early morning until well past midnight, the next day we had a house full of family to visit with and feed. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I left my days intentionally blank! I rested, watched several hours of CSI episodes, watched a couple of movies, let my family take care of themselves and recovered. It felt great!

But, when I leave large portions of my life blank, when I don’t pursue a goal, when I drift through the hours taking care of whatever seems most urgent in the moment I don’t feel very well at the end of the day. I look back at the time I spent and it…is…blank…

I must see the end from the beginning. Right now, in this moment of time, I am in a certain place doing a certain thing. That thing, done in that moment, has the potential to become part of a grand design or to become one of the blank spaces that meant nothing.

I want my life to be left intentionally full. Memories, accomplishments, relationships, growth, strength, love, laughter, and on and on and on. The only way to do this is to walk purposefully toward a desired end.

No more blank pages.

Made You Think!

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Have you ever played the game “Made You Blink”? The game where you move your hand very quickly in front of your opponent’s face in an attempt to get them to blink? This usually turns into a challenge to see which one of you can NOT blink.

Making someone think isn’t that easy.

We all have free will. I get to do what I choose to do. You get to do what you choose to do. My husband gets to do what he chooses to do. Even my children get to do what they choose to do.

Of course, our choices, and thereby our actions, have consequences. If I choose to eat chocolate ice cream and cheesecake every evening and wash it down with a large glass of my favorite carbonated beverage that is my choice, but if I weigh an extra 50 pounds at the end of the year that is a natural consequence of my choice.

I cannot make you think. I can give you information. I can point you toward excellent resources. I can encourage when you fall down, but I cannot make you think about the consequences of your actions.

The results you get tomorrow are the evidence of the decisions you made today. Did you think about those decisions? Did you make your choices based on a future plan? Have you thought at all about tomorrow?

I’m not saying to think about the future in a worrying kind of way. This post is not about worry. It is about planning, preparing, pointing yourself in a direction where you want to go and pursuing that path. Thinking each step of the way about whether or not you have reached your destination.

Think about it!

Decision Making and Procrastination

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When I go to a restaurant it takes me a long time to decide what I want to eat. I eliminate all the foods I don’t like fairly easily and sometimes I may be in the mood for chicken or beef which makes it easier to eliminate the other set of choices. But then I have to decide which specific thing I want to order.

As if it will be the last time I ever get to eat something off of that menu I will read and consider and deliberate and take a long time to make up my mind. I try to avoid new restaurants.

Now once I have made the decision at a particular restaurant, if the choice was good, I no longer have to make a decision at that restaurant. (Unless they change the menu. I don’t like it when that happens!)

My husband teases me about ordering the “same-thing-every-single-time-we-come-here.” I don’t see the problem. I made a decision once, why waste time making another one?

Decision making can be so hard. Many times we make it more difficult than it actually is, though. Yes, some decisions really are life or death, do or die. Some of those kinds of decisions are made more with adrenaline than thought. Some of those decisions, like weather to have surgery to treat an illness are made with careful thought and research.

But it’s the every day decisions that tend to weigh us down–what to wear, what to eat, whether or not to accept an invitation…So many choices!

So we resort to procrastination. We just don’t decide. Now, of course we obviously put on an outfit and put something in our mouths each day. We go places or just stay at home, but we don’t consciously decide these things. We do them by default.

Living on purpose means that we have a plan for our life. We know our desired outcome. We may not get exactly what we wanted, but if we have an idea of what we want to weigh in ten years, what image we want to reflect by our appearance and which friendships will strengthens us and which will tear us down then making choices today will be easier.

L.I.F.E. HAS LAUNCHED! If you have decided to live on purpose join me as we become what we want to be.