36525 days to live

“The first rule is, to keep an untroubled spirit.”

“The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”

Marcus Aurelius (121–180)
Roman emperor and philosopher

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When I try to live each day like if it was be my last, it gives me “an untroubled spirit” because of the satisfaction of having done the best that I could with the resources and the opportunities that were given to me.

When I try to look things in the face, it forces realism on me, it is not what happens to me, it is how I react to what happens to me.

Do you find it difficult to look at things for what they really are?  

                                                 OR                                             

 Do you INSIST on seeing things AS YOU WANT to see them? 

I’m sharing with you some passages from the text “The Law of clarity” from Brian Tracy.

Here it is,

The Law of Clarity
By: Brian Tracy
Clarity accounts for probably 80% of success and happiness. Lack of clarity is probably more responsible for frustration and underachievement than any other single factor. People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine.  Your success in life will be largely determined by how clear you are about what it is you really, really want.

The more you write and rewrite your goals and the more you think about them, the clearer you will become about them. The clearer you are about what you want, the more likely you are to do more and more of the things that are consistent with achieving them. Meanwhile, you will do fewer and fewer of the things that don’t help to get the things you really want.

I have nothing more to add.

It seems to me that some people are complaining and complaining and do nothing else.

If only they would realize how short life really is, they would come to the conclusion that their complaining is a waste of precious time, time that will never come back.

Since our time is so limited, doesn’t it make sense to figure out what we really enjoy and try to spend as much time as possible doing it? Again, I know, it is so obvious, so why are there so few people doing it?We all have responsibilities, but we also have spare time, and it is in that spare time that we can improve our quality of life.  

 Shouldn’t we all try to find a way to make a living while having fun?

Do you find yourself complaining too much?

Do you think it’s a waste of time and energy?

Why do a lot of people keep doing the same things over and over even when it makes them unhappy? They complain but change nothing.

They focus on the externals and neglect what is going on inside their minds.

They invest money on their houses, on their cars, on their swimming pools, on their boats and don’t invest money in their minds, on their skills and on their personal development.

They sit on their couch in the living room watching other people on television live their lives  and make money doing it when they could be living their own lives fully.

They talk about diets and health  endlessly without realizing they are sitting on the couch with a bag of chips and soda. All talk and no action.

This is just a personal observation.

And then again, without being aware of time going by…

What is YOUR relation between happiness and how you invest your free time?

Socrates said many years ago “A life unexamined is not worth living”

Well, why is it that most people don’t take the time to quiet their minds and take a look at their lives?

Why don’t they don’t ask themselves some important questions like;

Who am I?

What do I want to do with my life?

What are my natural talents or skills?

What makes me happy or unhappy?

What am I afraid of and why?

Who do I like to spend time with?

Do I like my job and why?  Why not?

Why am I afraid to change my job?

What can I do to improve my circumstances?

What do I control and what don’t I control?

How much time do you invest trying to answer YOUR important questions?

One of the great illusions in our life is to be addicted to busyness, it gives us the feeling of being productive, but are we really?There are so many demands in our life that it becomes very easy to lose focus.Our attention is requested by family members, people who depend on us and friends who want to spend time with us.Then there is the information overload or all kinds of other activities. It’s not always easy to SAY NO to less important activities when we should  SAY YES to our most important projects. It requires constant vigilance.

The time that we waste will never come back. I repeat; the time that we waste will never come back.

It is a sad reality but it is also a great wake-up call.

How do you make sure that you don’t waste too much precious time?

From the moment that I know what I want, I should increase the amount of time that I invest on what I really care about and reduce or eliminate the time that I spend on non-important things. I should try to be aware as often as possible. I mean COMPLETELY AWARE.

The intensity of my desire on the project will influence how long it will take me to accomplish it.

Most people are busy, some are very busy, the question is ; Are they busy doing what they really care about?

I’m astonished how so many people in so many fields of activity and from different backgrounds are wasting so much time. Think of all the kids who are wasting too much time on video games instead of learning practical and useful skills. Think of all the adults who are wasting too much time watching television or surfing aimlessly on the Web. Think of all the people of all ages wasting time on the phone or chatting on the net. What a waste of resources. Of course, we need to relax once in a while and it is good sometimes to do some mindless activities. But how much is too much?

What do you think ?

My life is the result of my hourly and daily choices. My number of days is limited and this is why I must make the choices that I really care about.

A good book to read that illustrates this point of view is CHASING DAYLIGHT by Eugene O’Kelly, a story of a successful executive who learns that he has brain cancer and about 100 days left to live. His priorities turned upside down and he explains to us in his own words that what used to be his “KING VALUES”, commitment to his family, job and responsabilities became, after receiving his diagnosis awareness,complete awareness of the time left. 

Shouldn’t we review our values and priorities before Life forces us to do it?

Do I always choose correctly, obviously NO.

Do I always practice what I preach, unfortunately NO.

Ask my wife, she’ll be happy to confirm ….

And by becoming aware of this, I keep improving every day.

I control what I eat, drink or don’t drink. I decide to exercise or not to exercise. I can waste time surfing the web aimlessly OR I can read good books with a clear objective in mind. I can stay by myself or meet with interesting people. I can take some classes or stay ignorant. I can be generous or greedy. I can be patient or impatient. I can be angry or peaceful. I can be dissatisfied or thankful.  I can be optimistic or negative. I control with who I want to spend time with and who I don’t want to spend time with. I decide who can influence me and who can’t . These choices are mine and mine alone most of the time.

How often do you consider the consequences of your own choices?

I must figure out what I have control over and what I don’t have control over.

So what do I have control over?

I have some control on the choices that I make here and now.

In every 24 hour period, I try to make the best choices possible with the knowledge, the resources and the opportunities that I have.

Every minute, well not every minute but as often as possible, I try to become aware of my thoughts and my decisions. When I try to choose correctly at every moment, I should have a good and productive hour, when I try to choose correctly every hour, I should have a good and productive day, when I try to choose correctly every day, I should end up with a good and productive week, and month, and year and decade ….

What control do you have over your daily choices?