Bathe in The Fountain of Meaningful Living
From Dana Bosley
I want to take this opportunity to give you a brief over view of the seven principles to meaningful living and keys to thriving in hard times. Throughout the coming year I will go into each of these topics and subtopics in more depth, however, the following might serve as a spring board as you reflect on what you want 2012 to look like for you. No doubt many of you may already be living up to these goals, but for what it’s worth—some of you may need to think about how you can improve in some of these areas. One thing I know, every one of these points is important to living a meaningful life.
1. Attitude: Your attitude has so much to do with how you handle your situation, whether you make things harder on yourself, or easier. An important thing to remember is you are not a victim, you can make a choice to change things. Having a good attitude is acquired by developing the following:
§ Positiveness & Perspective: One of the most vital ingredients to a meaningful life and thriving in hard times is having a positive attitude, and remembering that it is all a matter of perspective and how you view your situations.
§ Limiting beliefs: On the opposite end of the spectrum, you need to recognize your limiting beliefs and fight to overcome them, in addition—fight your negative self chatter.
§ Law of Attraction: The Law of Attraction says you attract what you think about into your life, in other words, your thoughts can become your reality, so it’s a good thing to be thinking about the things you want and not about what you don’t want.
§ Vision & Motivation: Where there is no vision, the people perish. It is important to have a vision, a passion, a dream. This will keep you moving and progressing and give you meaning in life.
§ Goals & Habits: Once you know what your vision is, you need to develop a plan to obtain it. Then you need to plan your work and work your plan, as well as overcome your bad habits by making new ones.
2. Resilience: Studies have shown that people who have high resilience are those who have the most meaningful lives. Resilience is the ability to bounce back and is built by the following.
§ Adversity: Obstacles are part of life, but more than that, adversities deepen and enhance one’s life—if you let them.
§ Failure & Mistakes: Triumph is born out of failure and making mistakes. Learning to handle failure and mistakes gracefully is a hard lesson to learn, but well worth it if you want to be successful.
§ Risk taking: This goes along with your perspective toward failure. Once you have the right attitude toward failure, then some calculated risks won’t be that hard to take, and are in fact essential to take if you want to keep growing and making progress in your life.
§ Be prepared: Being prepared for the opportunities that come your way is also a part of resilience. Your golden opportunity will come and you need to be prepared and ready to step right into it.
§ Learning: Never stop learning. Learning expands your horizons and helps you to see what may seem invisible to others.
3. Moral Fiber: Your moral fiber really determines who you are and is decided by how you act when no one is around. It is the core of your being and is central to a meaningful life and consists of the following.
§ Character: Integrity, courage, honesty, dignity are all part of character. It is only as you develop a good character that you can hope to have a noble life.
§ Forgiveness: Forgiveness is imperative to cultivate. If you have past grudges, grievances, or bitterness, it is crucial to rid yourself of it. Lack of forgiveness can be the greatest hindrance to living a meaningful life and thriving in hard times.
§ Happiness & Success: Defining what success means to you is a key. True success does not lie in the abundance of the things you have, but in the happiness you have—it is a matter of perspective.
§ Manners: Courtesy, manners, and treating people with respect, increases your own self worth and dignity. This principle may seem unimportant but little things do matter and make a huge difference.
§ Priorities & Values: Knowing what things are important to you in life, and defining what your values are, are key. When you are not living in congruity with your values it can wreck havoc in your life, and this can be a source of stress, unhappiness and turmoil.
4. Relationships: Relationships are the cornerstone of life. You can either have good ones or bad ones. Making every effort to have good relationships in your life will make it all the deeper and richer. Conversely, not making the effort, can make your life miserable.
§ Support team: Surrounding yourself with supportive people—those who lift you up and encourage you—is imperative to becoming all that you are meant to be. It is said that you are the sum of the five closest people that you surround yourself with most often, so it is important to surround yourself with those you want to emulate.
§ Evaluate your friends: You could have negative influences around you that you are not even aware of. You need to pin point the negativity and minimize it. Do not let anyone, no matter how good their intentions, hijack your dreams.
§ Boundaries: Setting boundaries is an important quality to master—doing so can end a lot of unnecessary abuse you may be experiencing in your life.
§ Listening: So few really know how to listen, or are truly listened to. The art of listening is something well worth cultivating and using.
§ Building up others: Just as it is important for you to surround yourself with people who lift you up, it is equally as important that you lift up others.
5. Service: Studies show that serving the community is one of the seven human needs. With the following keys you can have that need fulfilled in a positive way.
§ Encouragement & Appreciation: There are too many people in the world who feel unappreciated and need encouragement in order to do their best. Be a force for good to fill that need.
§ Giving: The best way out of financial difficulty is by giving. You are never too poor to share what you have. When you see someone less fortunate than yourself, thank God for what you have, then reach out to help the other person. Give him or her what you can of yourself and your substance.
§ Love & Kindness: These two go hand in hand with giving. If you can’t give anything else, you can always give love and kindness.
§ Leaving a legacy: It’s never too soon to consider how you want to be remembered. What have you done to make your world a better place?
§ Doing your part to change the world for the better: You may think that the world’s problems are too big and there is nothing you can do about them. You may not be able to change the whole world, but you can change your part of the world--day by day, one change at a time.
6. Energy: One of our most fundamental needs as human beings is to spend and renew energy. However, in a world of relentlessly rising demand and chronic overdrive, most of us spend far more mental and emotional energy then we adequately renew, and far too little physical energy to stay fit. It is vital to recognize and plug up your energy drainers and to renew your energy.
§ Nutrition, Exercise & Sleep: With our bodies constantly being invaded with toxins, it is important we get the right nutrition. It’s during deep, sufficient sleep that our bodies not only renew and recharge, but also repair themselves. At the other end of the spectrum, exercise challenges our bodies physically, signals growth, and positively influences our cognitive functioning and mood. So eat right, exercise right, sleep right and live right.
§ Simplicity & Stress: There many things in our lives that add to our stress. One significant energy drainer is putting up with things that don’t work—or things that irritate us, such as clutter. Living simply takes some work to get the hang of, but will bring you great peace of mind.
§ Financial freedom: Use money but don’t let money use you. A huge energy drainer is the worry about money but you can be free from that.
§ Laughter: Laughter is a great mood elevator, de-stresser, and is over all good for your health--both mentally, physically and spiritually.
§ Pampering: It is important to celebrate both big and small wins in your life. Enjoy the moment. Take good care of yourself, even pamper yourself at times. A better you makes a better world.
7. Spirituality: We are all spiritual beings and thus are influenced by the spirit. No matter what your spiritual practice, it is important to connect with the spirit.
§ Quiet time & Journaling: It is extremely beneficial to take time out—time where there is nothing on your agenda, so you can think, read, write, dream or rest. Make time to relax and reflect, to pray, establish affirmations, meditate, to do the things that quiet your spirit. In addition, take time to write down or journal your thoughts, dreams and ideas—enjoy your journey, and record it.
§ Self-esteem & Personal Worth: Many people suffer because they don’t feel like they are worthy. This is so sad, but as you connect with the spirit, you will revitalize your human dignity and you’ll see just how special and unique you are.
§ Gratitude: Expressing thankfulness, gratitude, or praise on a regular basis can lead to an overflowing abundant life. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to cultivate this habit. When showing gratitude becomes part of you, the results in your life and spirit will be magical.
§ Inner Beauty: To find inner beauty one must go beyond the epidermis into the soul of the human being. Inner beauty is an intangible quality that radiates from within and can only be cultivated by growing in spirit.
This is just an overview of the seven principles to Meaningful Living. Each of the subtopics are whole studies in themselves and can make a world of difference on their own, but when all these principles are combined together and put into action, you’ll be amazed at the change it can make in the quality, depth, meaning, purpose and richness of your life. I invite you to bathe in the fountain of meaningful living and revel in the inspiration you will find there. Looking forward to enjoying the wonder of a meaningful life with you.
Wishing you all the best,
Coach Dana
