A Better Life, It Is Possible

“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov 

For every hundred men, starting from age 25, upon reaching the age of 65, only 1 rich, 4 are financially independent, five are still working and the rest will be broke. Which tells us that only 5 out of 100 people are successful in life. Now why is that? Why only 5 end up living their dreams? Why do we need to struggle in life? Why are there so few who actually lived their lives?
The answer is simply, 5 out of 100 knows why they exist in this world and the remaining 95 spend their lives without knowing what their purpose in life is. To make it clear, our life purpose is the reason we are here in this world, it is our assignment! It is the what we are meant to contribute and make a difference in the world and make it at least a better place to live in. It is what we are created for by God to share to the world. A problem to solve for humanity. Usually, this goes beyond ourselves and is far great than us.  

“The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.”
― Robert F. Kennedy

More often our thoughts are all about us, ourselves and you only, and probably not working in life with our life's purpose. In making ourselves the center of our thoughts is self-centeredness, which limits our abilities to succeed in life.
Are we in this world just to earn a living and provide for our family? I don't think so, because that is too small to be the purpose of our life. If where the purpose of anything is not known, often it is being abused; if we fail to identify our life purpose, we often end up being used, abused and support others to achieve their life purpose. Sad to say the reality is most of us are employed today, we start our morning everyday performing a routine helping our employers to realize their vision and serve their purpose. I don't mean to say that it is not right to work for an employer, it could be an instrument to get some skills and resources which can help in serving our life purpose. But, we need to know what our life purpose and have a plan to serve it. Would you like to be just an employee for the rest of  your life?
To know what our life purpose, we need to search for our own answer to these questions: Why am I in this world? How can I make my life count? These clues can probably help figure it out:

1. Know that one thing you can do and very good at.
2. Discover what you love and enjoy doing.
3. Is there anything you are so passionate about?
4. Is  there anything you can do and be your best regardless not receiving any monetary reward from it?

Any one of these might give us something to better understand why we are in this world. Then we can develop and hone our skills in that particular talent or skill to become our best. More importantly, shifting our attention from ourselves to others. Think of how to use our skills to benefit the human race and to the glory of the God.
Each one of us is born to contribute something to the world. That is our life purpose, and once we discovered that, the lessons of what you sow you reap applies. The 5 people who succeeded in life knows this perfectly well, and what exactly did they do? While most of us focus on reaping, these people focus on sowing. They understand that what they sow eventually they will reap in the end. They planted their time and their resources towards giving and serving their purpose to benefit humanity; donating into the world by solving the problem and meeting others needs, employing us. This tactic eventually create more than enough harvest to take care of their personal needs.
However, most of us have the mindset of meeting only our personal needs, an employee mindset. It is a mystery when I see people getting a job for the sole purpose of getting a high salary. Getting the money to take care of personal needs. That is our main focus, the harvest than the sowing. We work tirelessly night and day for the money.  It is a universal truth that our needs need to be met, but we need to meet the needs of others too. If our major purpose to specifically to only meet our needs, then we must understand that this kind of thinking only leads to a life of constantly struggling to succeed. But there is a better way to live and that is to identify our life purpose and serve that purpose for the humanity. When we do this, we will be reaping an abundance of harvest that is more than enough for our needs.

Habits We Might Consider

There are times when we need to re-evaluate our lives and look forward to the future. It makes us look back at the choices that affects us in the past and gives opportunity to make some adjustments in the present, it may be too late for "resolutions", but we need adjustments to some of our habits, thought it may be "painful", but we need to get in "shape". We need to stop something or get our lives in order. Whatever we choose may relatively easy to do, or notice and are often supported by many.

However there are other, maybe worth improving that probably we often overlooked. But as the case maybe, they seemed to be just as important, even help us realize that there are some issues in our lives that leads to poor decisions or choices in the first place.

With that in mind, let's consider the following 12 habits as possible great "resolutions" to build our lives with:

1. Laugh everyday, intentionally. Laughter eases stress, lowers blood pressure and exercises muscles. It brings joy and hope. We should laugh everyday.

2. Have a solitude moment. Find some time by yourself, in peace and quiet on a regular basis. No everything, that will distract you. Just you alone with yourself. They say your life will never be the same (trust me, I know what it feels to be all by yourself most of the time. You become more creative.)

3. Say thank you all the time. Make it a habit to say thank you to someone or something everyday. It takes our attention away from what we don't have and leads us towards what we do. This may result to contentment and generosity.

4. Slow down.  Take your time. We can never outrun time. But we can be earlier so we can have time to take things slowly, enjoying each moment. Walking may lead to discovery of things around you, taking time in the shower relaxes and soothes, eating slowly makes us savor the flavors of food. Take time...no make time.

5. Try to fast once a month, we will not die if we skip a day without eating, in fact it is said that fasting "reboots" our body in order to function well. Also, if may teach us self-control, self-denial and sacrifice. It trains the mind to weather storms and temptations. It also heightens our senses. The purpose may sound like spiritual but it does not have to be.
6. "Do it Now! Instead of procrastinating about something we need to do, why not do it now. It may relieve the stress unnecessary in our lives. Just say it like a mantra, simply "do it now!"
7. Go fruits and veggies.  No need to elaborate on this. WE already know what it does and what these greens can do.
8. Read books. They contain wisdom.
9. Remove pornography. Say what?! Yes, it limits our capacity to appreciate what is real and the people in it. It shrouds the mind with unreal and unhealthy assumptions about sexuality and how we relate with others. Try to remove it and maybe life can be better, and we might appreciate more the simple joys of the people and our relationships at the moment.
10. Sleep early. We know the benefits of having a good night's sleep, right?
11. Try to give to charity. Ok, this may be kind of broad, try with the immediate people around you, you have something you have no use for? Without attachment, let go and give it away to someone who might have a better use for it.
12. Go out with your special someone. Make the relationship more fun and stronger by spending time together once in a while. Be creative, it need not be expensive.

I do try to make it a habit intentionally each of these, some I already did at some point, while others needs a bit more practice and one is still beyond my choice, lols! (no. 12). My desire is not that these list would be the secret to have a happy life, but rather simply consider each one in the hope to have a better life.

10 Steps To A Better You - Will Edwards

I am posting this as it is quite easy to follow:

1. Exercise regularly, ideally every day.
2. You must have a vision or a dream if you like.
3. Always be prepared to adopt a new approach.
4. Start to see every demand on your time in terms of your vision.
5. De-clutter your home, office and l...ife.
6. Brainstorm ideas regularly with yourself or with others.
7. In all you dealings with other people, commit yourself to really listening to what they have to say.
8. Start performing Random Acts of Kindness.
9. If you are negotiating anything with anyone, try to find a solution that both parties like and not one that both parties will reluctantly accept.
10. Stay committed to the process of continual improvement.

The Four Agreements - Don Miguel Ruiz

I have to have a copy of the book, yet as I read articles and writing pertaining to the book by this great motivational and inspirational author, I began to understand already what it's all about.

He shared his learning on how to live life towards success and happiness (yes, another way of making your life better) by categorizing them in his so-called Four Agreements, which were as follows:

1. Be Impeccable with your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

Sounds easy? No it's not but the journey would be worth it. It will need a lot of work, we'll experience a lot of failures and disappointments, but if we stick to each agreement and imbibe each into our daily living, one day at a time, what is a week, a month or a year? When the end result is a better life?