Your life is precious. From the day you took your first breath and cried to the world in greeting, your mind, body and spirit has become a vital part of the world around you. Therefore, it is your right, and responsibility to make sure that you live your life with the utmost vibrancy, effectiveness, and well, liveliness. Here are a few tips to help you do just that.
Preserve Your Health
Believe it or not, making sure that you stay healthy is not all that complicated. It falls down to three basic ideas. Eat a balanced diet, get regular amounts of exercise, and rest when needed- preferably at least eight hours a day. Take away just one of these components, and you’ll start feeling like a racehorse that is never given the chance to wind down after a sprint race on the quarter mile track.
Over the years, experience and science has taught us quite a number of different foods to enjoy, given us many different exercise programs, and provided us with aids to help us sleep if necessary. Finding the right combination for your body, and your mental health isn’t impossible; it just takes a bit of time and effort. One of the first steps is to have a conversation with your doctor or medical professional. Together the two of you can easily finds ways to make your health a lot better.
Develop and Savor Your Relationships
Even the healthiest people in the world can miss out on a vital part of the human experience. Without solid relationships, a person does not have the social safety net to draw from when their life gets a little bit more than they can handle. Like anything else of value, these relationships must be cared for and maintained to flourish and grow.
One of the most effective ways to accomplish this is to put energy and time into the relationships that you cherish. Take a few moments to sit down with your family over a meal. Say hello to the co-worker in the break room. It’s even a good idea to keep in contact with your clients. Ask how they are doing, and genuinely listen to their answer. You will be surprised how much you will grow and learn from even the smallest interactions.
Of course, you can’t and shouldn’t develop meaningful relationships with everyone you meet. If you did, you wouldn’t have time for much else. Instead, focus on those relationships that can either help transform you into a better person, or through which you can sincerely help the person. Learn how to recognize those people who are toxic to you – ones that are constantly bringing you down instead of pushing you up and toward greater things. You’ll recognize them quite easily. By focusing on the positive relationships in your life, you’ll find that you have little time for the negative ones.
Recognize Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Despite what you might think, you are not required, or even capable of doing everything. No one is. Thankfully, the sooner a person comes to terms with that fact of life, the healthier and more rewarding his life will be. Everyone has different areas they excel in, talents that naturally flow from themselves. Perhaps you have the ability to naturally reassure people. Perhaps you’ve never met a computer that you couldn’t handle. Or maybe you are the next dog whisperer. Whatever the case, it is important to use your strengths to the best of your ability. After all, these natural talents are yours, and should not be wasted.
While you have a few natural flairs in some areas of your life, there are others where you could use a little help. Never be afraid to ask for it. A genuine need for assistance should never been seen as a sign of weakness – only a sign of intelligence. In addition, by requesting help with things, you’ll be able to witness some great examples of natural talent being used.
One of the best examples of these concepts was seen in the early days of the Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford not only pioneered the automobile, but he also help to implement many labor practices that were seen as extremely controversial. For starters, he recognized quite early that each person he hired had different areas of strength, ones that could be utilized in a team environment where everyone was equal. By providing a place where the ideas and work mattered more than the status of the people, a person’s innovations and ideas would carry them further than their past or even who they knew.
Andrew Carnegie once said that “teamwork is the ability to work together towards a common vision… it is the fuel that allows common people to obtain uncommon results.” That simple statement underscores one of the vital ideas to any successful endeavor, business or otherwise. By recognizing the strength and weakness of you and your teammates, you’ll be able to better pair together those who will complement each other in their skill sets.
Goals and Plans
You know how to keep yourself healthy and maintain the relationships that you cherish. You have learned how to recognize the strengths and weaknesses that you carry with you, as well as those around you. So now the question you need to ask is what is all this effort for? In one sense, a good and fulfilling life is its own reward. However, there is nothing wrong with having specific goals and plans for your future. Having a concrete plan is a great way to help propel you into better things. Think of something that you want to accomplish today, something that you want to finish within the next week. Then think of what you want to have completed by the end of the year. Now start making a plan to accomplish each one of your goals.
Challenge Yourself
In order to maintain a healthy a vibrant life, a person needs to grow. As your physical body matures, it is important to keep your mind and your spirit maturing as well. One of the most effective ways to accomplish this is to give you a challenge. It can be something as simple as walking that extra ten minutes on the treadmill, or as complicated as learning Chinese. The ultimate goal is to be the very best. If you can’t think of a reason why, consider this; how will you know what you are capable of if you don’t put in the effort?
Patience is Key
The more you improve your health, relationships and life in general, the more time it is going to take. You cannot climb to the summit and enjoy the journey in one step. Having patience is important in everything you do. If you try to do too much too fast you’ll find out how quickly you begin stumbling. Instead, take the time to get a sure footing, and continue the climb to the top.
What would you like to accomplish today?