Choosing Health, Wealth and Happiness
I have loved to read since I was a kid. Amazingly enough all of my siblings are readers as well. That is just one of the many things I inherited from Mother Fran. I used to read mystery novels and the occasional romance novel. When my family gathers together, it is not uncommon for each of us to have a book in hand. Reading gives you something to do, when you only have a few minutes, when you are bored and when you are relaxing overlooking the lake.
Would your life be different if money was not a concern? Would you be different? How would things be different? Would you behave differently? Would you still be you? So many questions this morning. Sometimes when I read books or listen to podcasts I take notes so I can go back and review them at my leisure. This can be the catalyst for a blog post, for some introspection and for some inspiration.
I was checking out a document on my computer that I saved under the title – “Things I Want to Do” and the first section looked like this:
If $ Was No Concern, I would love to:
We often use money as an excuse for not doing something we claim we want to do. It is true that money is an important tool to getting what we want out of life but it is not the only tool available. As a tool, it can be used in a variety of ways to help us reach our goals. How we choose to earn money, spend money, save and invest money all have a impact on how much is available to address our needs as well as our wants.
I spent 20 plus years working for the same company. Most of that time, my job didn’t pay well and the benefits were just okay. I saved a little, spent a little and invested a little. Mother Fran was my early financial mentor so I always had enough to cover my monthly bills and a bit set aside for emergencies. But for some reason the thought of leaving that job to pursue another in order to increase my income didn’t really occur to me! I did meet some pretty amazing people some of whom are still my close friends.
I digress – if money was not a concern what would you love to do? Make a list of your top 10 things. Hell list out your top 20 or 50 or even 100! This is a day dreaming type of exercise afterall! Really do it now, it only takes 5 minutes. After jotting down the list above, I remember staring at it and thinking “what can I do now? What can I do today to get one step closer to each of these 10 things?
Then there was one of those AHA moments where I kicked my ass into gear and made another list! It looked like this:
Figuring out the first step for each item on my list cost me nothing. What it did do was help me realize that my dreams were possible and that I could complete some of them sooner than I thought.
“Sometimes not doing what we think we want to do is less about money and more about inertia!”
Lake Girl @ My Little Blue Kayak
Spending 50-10 minutes on this exercise might just propel you to take the first step toward reaching some of your dreams, and then another…
Lake Girl
As a kid, my parents took us camping and to lots of State Parks. New York has a beautiful park system with hiking, swimming, camping, waterfalls and nature galore. I remember loving every minute of our time in the parks. This instilled in me a love of the outdoors that has only grown as I have gotten older. Since I moved back to New York five years ago, I have returned to many of these parks and still am in awe at the beautiful scenery.
OMG 2018 is more than half way over. It is amazing how quickly time zips bye, and if we don’t pay attention, those goals we set way back in January become forgotten. Goals that are written down in January and never looked at again are simply words on a page. They are like wishes, they sound good but are not going to come true without hard work, perseverance and tracking.
It is time to review my goals for the year to check in on my progress. Here in My Little Blue Kayak, I spend my time paddling toward optimized health, wealth and happiness. Therefore, I tend to write goals in these categories. In January, I posted my 2018 goals and you can check them out here. In that post, I also explained how my goals each year, fit into the bigger picture of how I want to live my life strategically. Go check it out if you have the time!
How many times have I said these 5 little words; “I could never do that?” I have said those 5 little words more times than I care to remember. How about you? All to often, it is easier to put up fences than to risk embarrassment, easier to not even try than to risk failure.
I had some friends visiting from Massachusetts last week and we had a wonderful time! These are the kind of friends who have been in my life for what seems like forever and no matter how mad we get at each other, all is forgiven over a glass of wine or a really good meal.
This friend of mine has a pet peeve bigger then Big Papi’s ability to score a home run in clinch situation. My friend refuses, absolutely refuses to pay for parking. He would rather walk across a bridge, 2 miles in the rain than fork over $5 bucks to park his car.
We jokingly talked about this while driving to go on a hike last week. My honey and I were trying to figure out how to get to a hiking spot we have done many times but we wanted to park at the summit of the hike (where parking is free) vs at the base where parking cost $7.00. Somehow I knew my friend would understand.
I hate shelling out good money on poopy bags for Fenway. It seems such a silly thing but why spend money on squirling away poop? I hit the jack pot over the winter when my honey and I were doing some clean up at her parents and we scored 2 boxes of unused bags that are the perfect size to take care of Fenway’s business. I think I even did a happy dance when I tucked them into the car. I should have plenty of bags on hand to get me through 2017. Yeah!
On December 11, 2016, I challenged you to read a book on personal development and to complete every exercise in the book. I shared with you my answers to some of the exercises in a book titled “Planning for Success: Living Your Dream by Dr. Mark Chironna. I didn’t pick this book for any special reason, it was just the one I was reading at the time.
In this post, I share my answers to the second series of questions. It is good to reflect on the progress you make in the pursuit of your dream! The questions from the book are in bold.
Note the areas in which you approach life with intentionality. How have the outcomes in these areas surpassed results elsewhere? When it comes to my work life, I have very intentionally slipped out of the rat race. When our per-diem OT left, I immediately recognized the opportunity to leave full-time work behind me.
I sketched out a plan that I thought would work, looked at the pros and cons and took a giant leap of faith that everything would work out. And it has! I intentionally stepped away from full-time work and a full-time paycheck. I intentionally reduced my expenses, eliminated my debt and pursued other ways to earn money doing activities I enjoy. This has led to a massive increase in my happiness. No where else in my life have I had results that compare to this.
One year ago I picked up a book at the library by Allisom Rimm titled The Joy of Strategy: A Business Plan for Life” The introduction begins with: “The joy of a life well lived – our work well done, our cherished ones well loved, our potential realized. Isn’t that what we’re all after? You don’t need to leave your dreams to chance. However achieving this most fundamental and often elusive goal doesn’t just happen. It requires a strategy. To create a meaningful plan, you need a structured approach that guides your through the process of defining what is most important to you and what you must do to get it. The world’s most successful businesses do this as a matter of course, and there is no more essential business than the business of your life”.
I read those words and got excited. I had already been doing a lot of soul searching and had a pretty good idea of what was important to me and the type of life I wanted to live. I had already gotten a taste of freedom by moving the lake and I wanted more! At that time, the life I so desperately wanted looked like this:
