Life Is Shorter Than We Think

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Life is a lot shorter than we think for the simple reason that we're not actively living for more than half of it. When we think about our lifespan we don't think about the time where we passively live only the time where we're actively living. When we think about our retirement, at the age of 65 years, we don't think about half of the time we'll be asleep, we don't think about the times we'll need to recover, the times where our minds will simply wonder on unproductive things, the time we'll need to cook, the time you'll need to take care for those close to you...

If we factor in the degradation of our bodies then we even have less time to do what we actually want to do. If you're in your early 20s, for example, it's no longer time for you to be starting the process to join a professional sport team - if you haven't started in your early childhood then you've already missed that boat and it only gets worse from there.

Your mental faculties also degrades over time and you'll notice that you may not be as creative in your later years as you were years prior.

Yes, life is short and it's even shorter than we actually think it is as we often don't consider the time where we passively live whenever we think about the duration of our lives. Work on your goals with a sense of urgency as tomorrow is not guaranteed and even if you are going to be here tomorrow... tomorrow will come sooner than you think and you may not have the ability to work on your goals anymore.

Merry Christmas - 2023

 

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For some, Christmas is a period of time with lots of family gatherings and maybe you wished those would stop. To you, I say be careful what you wish for as one day that wish will come true and you will regret ever wishing it. Sure, attending 15 different suppers may be exhausting but those are blessing in disguised. When those supper stops, it's either going to be because someone died or they've lost interest in doing them. 

Have those suppers and enjoy them while they last.

This year, I realized that not everyone has been as blessed as I have with life up to this point. Many will be alone for Christmas and this post, my friends, is for you. May you have a wonderful Christmas and may next year bring you the joys of close relationships.

Merry Christmas 2023!

The Secret to Mental Heath

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My sister recently pointed out to me that she found it strange that I didn't require medication for stress or depression at my age considering the work I was doing and how other people seem to require it. While my mental health isn't the greatest all the time I know that there's some things that I can do to help it and thankfully it never got bad enough that I felt the need for medication - at least not yet.

The secret to mental health is to not let it deteriorate - prevention is much better than medication. 

How do you even work on your mental health though? While there's no one answer that will work for everyone there are some rules that we should consider to help keep our mental health where it should be.

Some things to consider:

• Physical Health - The relationship between body and the mind can't be understated. If you're body has problems, your mental state will have problems. Eat/sleep/exercise to help you body cope with the stress of life and give it a better chance at fighting the inner daemons.
• Meditation - Read good books, calm your mind, don't dwell on the negativity of your life.
• Shut off negativity - I know people that watch 8 hours a day of negative news and wonder why they don't feel the greatest? Limit your exposure to negativity; Sometimes this means to remove friends from your life or negative news.
• Financial stability - Financial stress is quite difficult to cope with. Learn to say no to the things that will bring you in unnecessary debt and ultimately clutter your life.
• Relationships - Having good friends does wonders to your mental health.
• Get out of the comfort zone - Comfort zone is comfortable but not really exciting. Doing something new will add "life" to your life.
• Therapy - If you struggle, seek professional help! Don't let those problems grow within your mind as they're easier to deal with when they're small than when they're fully ingrained.

While I'm convinced the above can help, sometimes life just keeps throwing things at you which makes it difficult to see the positive side of things. If you're going through one of those times, the only thing you can do is keep moving forward keeping in mind that nothing last forever whether it be the good or the bad times.

Leaders Take Blame

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"Leaders take blame" is something I first heard roughly 15 years ago when I attended my first MLM Leadership seminar. While I've applied the principle for myself, it's not until recently that I've had to extend its reach to someone else's mistake and understood the reasoning behind it.

"In youth we learn; in age we understand."

-Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

I'm at a point in my career where I have more work than I can reasonably do on any given day. Lately, this has become a problem due to competing priorities; when I work on one thing, the other thing doesn't get done until I have time to do it. 

To remedy this situation, I've started delegating some of these important task unto other people and this is how I learned the importance of taking the blame from someone else's mistakes. If I discourage people when they make mistakes, then I'm going to be stuck doing these tasks on my own - forever. If I want other people to step up and take up things off of my plate then I must create an environment to allow them to grow.

By taking the blame, I've allowed people to be more courageous than they normally would of been which translate to them taking ownership of the tasks.

If you're fighting for a goal bigger than you then you need a team to support you. Leaders take the blame indeed...

They're Everywhere!

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A friend of mine has told me recently that she quit her job because she was tired of working with people that didn't want to work.

Different company-same problems...

Some people are mediocre regardless of the amount of training they go through. Whether it be intentional or not they simply don't produce at a level that is satisfactory for the role they're supposedly hired to fill.

Companies must have plans in place to identify/work/remove these individuals as not doing so will negatively impact morale as well as drive out those that are producing. It's a real shame to loose a good employee at the hands of a mediocre one.