Parallel Universes – The Story of Rebirth
“Your Life in Balance” is an excellent e-book written by David Bohl from Slow Down Fast. It is very well thought-out and written and I recommend it to anyone who wants to make the most out of their life.
I have had the pleasure of reading and now writing a review of David Bohl’s insightful ebook …
I have recently been thinking about the things we don’t do, that we love to do. I know people, for instance, who really enjoy the ballet, and who have ballet companies in or near their city, and yet don’t go to the ballet. Why not? “It’s too expensive.” “I don’t have anyone to go with me.” “I don’t have the time.” “I never think of it.”
I say put it on your calendar, spend the money, go alone, give up doing something you don’t enjoy.
A wonderful woman I’m familiar with is the absolute essence of New York Society – except that she has spent her entire life living in the South.
But I also find it interesting that someone who so clearly loves both New York, with its theatre scene, and Arkansas, where she has lived most of her life excluding graduate school, has found a balance between the two.
As my kids have grown, and I’ve been fortunate enough to step away from a brutal workaholic schedule and watch them grow up and become young adults, I’ve really enjoyed learning how children just seem to understand balance, and they can teach it to us when we’re willing to learn.
Of course that’s a big if.
After I titled this post “Living Around Principles,” it occurred to me that might sound like I mean living by getting around your principles, shoving them aside and living the life you’d be leading if you didn’t have any principles.
Uh, no. I left the title alone because I wanted to go ahead and bring up that idea, and then talk about why it doesn’t work and what I really meant.
Getting around your principles will not create the kind of life you want.
In my previous life, before I threw up my hands (and my career as a financial trader), moved to Wisconsin and started living a life I truly enjoyed, I didn’t have time for a hobby. I was like the guy in the recent New Yorker cartoon lying on the beach with his laptop. He says to his wife, “It’s not that I’m a workaholic. I just work to relax.”
If anyone had asked me if I had a hobby I would probably have said, “Yeah, I work. That’s how I spend my free time.” Well, as you probably agree, working between eighty and one hundred hours every week is not exactly conducive to having a hobby, and no, I don’t think working really counts as a hobby.
I have been giving some thought to what it means to be a master of life. I think “mastering” life breaks down into four areas, and I want to give some attention to each of these areas. I hope that people will think and talk about these ideas. We can all benefit from discussing what it takes to live the life we want, and these are some areas I think are really important.
I was recently asked by Dana Glazer, Director of The Evolution of Dad (“A Documentary-In-Progress about the Evolving American Father”), to write about something I’ve learned through my experience as a father.
Dana has graciously included this in his blog The Evolution of Dad Project.
This really got me thinking, as I’ve learned so much throughout my years of making mistakes, correcting them, learning from them, and attempting to change my habits and behavior to create a better life for myself and those around me.
Just about everyone, at some point in their lives, dreams of starting their own business, getting “out of the rat race,” “being the boss.”
If you’re thinking about going solo, either as a freelancer or consultant, or as a business owner in some other type of business, that’s great! I really believe there is a lot to be said for owning your own business and running your own show.
However, I would caution you that things are not always black and white.
You probably think I just said, “Time is money,” but what I actually said was, “money is time.” They amount to the same thing, really, in some ways. But when you really stop to analyze the idea that money is time, wow. What a concept.
I’ll be Karen Ellenbecker’s guest on her weekly educational non-traditional investment radio program titled Money Sense.
My guest spot on Money Sense can be heard in the greater Milwaukee metro area this Sunday, September 16th, from 12:00 Noon to 1:00 PM CST.
Listen live via the Web at: (10:00 AM PST, 11:00 AM MST, 12:00 Noon CST, 1:00 PM EST)
The Christian Science Monitor recently ran an essay on the value of puttering.
The thrust of the article was that we don’t putter much anymore. We spend too much time “getting things done.”
Accomplishment is great, but what if we all just stayed at home this Saturday and puttered?
Can the achievement of happiness be predicted in any meaningful sense? Simply put, yes it can. If you have close (safe, nurturing, comforting) personal relationships and fulfilling work to do, and you know yourself and what you are about, you can predict that you will have enough good things in your life to bring you lasting happiness. No life is without conflict, pain or even moments of fear, but overall happiness counter-balances all the trials and challenges life hands you. If you have those things working in your life that generate a bone-deep level of happiness you have an automatic cushion against getting bounced on your ear by the unexpected.
Ok … you have all your productivity tools in place. You have a rock-solid time management system. You have a seemingly-workable plan. But something isn’t quite right. You feel that, now, more than ever, you’re being stretched beyond your limits.
Maybe what’s missing isn’t all the tools and techniques. Maybe it’s your strategy.
With the Labor Day Holiday approaching, we all think about a weekend of leisure, whether that means a slow-paced Friday through Monday of solitude and barbecues, or an action-packed one of friends, parties, and go-go-go!
What Labor Day means on the calendar, however, is that summer vacations are over, people are back in the office, and it’s time to get things accomplished.
As you contemplate the number of hours you’ll be spending on your work in the months ahead, do you dread the thought? Will you have a mountain of work to do, yet still take on more with a smile (maybe forced) on your face? Will people be pulling you in every direction?