Like You Mean It

[Reference: “Like You Mean It” Louisville Magazine 12.16, pp. 38-45]

This article took up the challenge of charting a profitable and productive path for personal development in the year 2017.  Outlined suggestions and admonitions follow.  (NOTE: I’ve used the LM categorical listings but re-engineered the summations for more global applications.)

SAVE MONEY

The nature of financial needs changes with time, but the perpetual need to minimize debt and maximize savings never changes.  Setting goals, tracking progress, taking advantage of “deals”, negotiating costs of services, delaying gratification, and living some distance “below your means” across-the-board are strategies to adopt early.  Both small and large sacrifices early in the going can make ENORMIOUS differences over time.  DOIT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!

BE MINDFUL

Pay attention!  Self-awareness, self-monitoring, and total intentional engagement with the outside world pays dividends.  Knowing your limitations and being able to tap into regenerative resourcefulness will reduce stress, enhance energy and provide better balance.  Meditative cogitation, “enlifening” body movement, and avoidance of toxic insults (such as alcohol, tobacco, both prescription and non-prescription drugs, television, social media, and video games … not to mention abusive situations) will help maintain both an enhanced sense of wellness and a reality of wellbeing.  DOIT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!

VOLUNTEER

Hundreds of opportunities exist in urban communities to help improve and advance the human condition.  These range from feeding and clothing the poor to visiting and assisting the elderly and disabled to tutoring/mentoring children and assisting in primary and secondary education to assisting with boys and girls clubs, boy scouts, girl scouts, Big Brothers/Big Sisters to coaching or refereeing sports to volunteering in hospitals, daycare and rehabilitation centers.  A plethora of public service agencies depend very heavily on volunteers, including the American Cancer Society, Hospice, Ronald McDonald House, and various shelters.  Experience shows that volunteer work positively affects the volunteer at least as much as it benefits the person(s) supported.  DOIT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!

EXERCISE

No studies exist to show that exercise worsens the human condition – except when engaged in excess.  Exercise not only helps tone, trim and “temper” the body, but tones, “tunes” and “tempers” the mind, and may even enhance brain integrity.  The main problem with exercise is actually making it happen!  Gimmicks, including Fit Bits, abound, as do fitness clubs offering everything from Jazzercise to Adventure and Survival Training to Pilates to Ninja martial arts.  However, neither willpower, nor shame nor guilt – alone or combined – are a match for hard-core reticence, procrastination and delayed ramification.  [See START below.]  So we have to get help, set boundaries, and engage full, no-excuses EXECUTIVE FUNCTION to make it happen.  Then DOIT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!

WRITE

You don’t have to write the next great American novel or a bundle of essays for posterity or an earth-shaking blog.  But even informal “journaling” can help crystallize what you believe to be important, and can document the hurdles you have overcome when it’s time to do a “Victory Lap”.  Writing is a means of expression that comes in very handy both on-the-job and in the marketplace.  Being able to express yourself clearly, concisely and compellingly can open doors that are closed to those who can’t.  Writing helps shape and sharpen our thoughts and positions on both personal and world affairs.  Written notes greatly aid preparation and delivery of keynote addresses and any and all negotiations.  Editing written notes should include reflection on how solid or limpid our arguments are.  If nothing else, write down what elements of YOUR life are negotiable and non-negotiable.  Toward this end, I challenge you to put together a Personal Manifesto about what you believe and what your highest aspirations might be.  DOIT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!

START

Simply getting off the launch pad is one of the biggest inertial challenges.  However, once we actually START something – by whatever means – the “activation energy” required has already been overcome and spontaneous things can start to happen.  “The brain can be very lazy … [its] evolutionary feature is to conserve energy … Procrastination is probably a mixture of effort and fear – or some negative connotation … Humans try to maximize rewards and minimize punishment … [but] the more you procrastinate, the more it gets reinforced that the thing is negative … A lot of times it’s just thought getting in the way of action [we’re “busy”, don’t you know!] … The farther away the gratification, the harder it is to do an activity [like exercise] … if you really dislike doing something [like exercise], try doing something pleasurable at the same time [like listen to music or watch videos of cats] … And when you’re done with the laundry, drink a beer.”  [Brendan Depue]  DOIT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!

SLEEP

“Power naps” are gaining popularity.  http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/10/health/best-times-nap-work/  University of Louisville professor Brian Monsma is a strong advocate, and goes even further to describe the virtues and mechanics of 10 minute “Flash Naps”.  Sleep recommendations and coaching abound https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=sleep  Without question, rejuvenating sleep is one of the core essentials of personal wellbeing.  Get YOURS.  And DOIT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!

LEARN

Yes, you can develop your own curriculum at ANY age (how cool is THAT!?!), but it’s gotta be both challenging and meaningful, and you can’t short the value of more formal / structured / guided / mentored / tutored learning experiences.  ASK TO BE MENTORED in areas of your greatest interest or areas where you may have an “achievement gap”.  And TAKE NOTES!  Actual writing (even better than typing into a computer file) helps anchor information and reinforces the learning by forcing you to conceptualize and summarize material in your own words.  DOIT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!

GET SKILLED

Visit your local library and find out what tremendous skills-exploring and skills-building resources they have.  Do an apprenticeship or internship in an organization you find both challenging and exciting.  And GET CERTIFIED … in SOMETHING!  Visit your local vocational/technical school and see what opportunities they may have available.  If you like growing stuff, visit the local Extension Service Office or horticulture group.  Vocational associations abound.  Visit and/or join one!  DOIT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!

GET CULTURED

Beauty, truth and inspirational works elevate the human spirit, undergird the nobility of mankind, and engender hope in a sustainable future.  Video games and social media, not so much.  Get a well-rounded exposure to theater, drama, musical theater, art, musical performance; learn to play a musical instrument; join a singing group; read and write some poetry; paint a picture … Study some antiquities – and their historical context – along the way.  [“Antiquities are valuable not because they are old; they are old because they are GOOD!”  Louis Palmer]  Let the “unbridled spirit” within you “free” itself.  And grasp as much of the human spirit and human experience as your time and energy will allow. DOIT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!

READ

Go “Deep-Mining the Universe”.  Great thinkers and explorers do not publish their greatest works on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  They carefully and thoughtfully and creatively unravel secrets of the universe to share in as permanent a form as they have available.  It expands your horizons.  And it challenges errant hypotheses, mistaken assumptions, unrealistic expectations and unwarranted entitlements.  It helps grow our understanding of those who are “different”.  Do not shy from challenging works (start with the Cliff Notes if necessary), but grow yourself into understanding how the Greats think, and learn vicariously the lessons they have already learned from hardship.  Thus, negative history won’t have to repeat itself in YOUR life but positive history CAN.  Be BULLISH on reading Great Stuff!  DOIT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!

“Immerse yourself in Greatness and you will never be bereft in Spirit.”

Quartermaster