Q. What does it mean to live your best life? 

I've been pondering this question over the past week. As I approach the final days of the first month of 2022 and with my "social media" sabbitacal coming to an end, I'm seeing the world from a different lens. Bi-Monthly I have a call with a long time trusted friend, where we discuss our lives and the progress we are making.

Our focus was on goals and his continues to be on goals while I've shifted to guidelines. As 2021 was drawing to a close I began asking myself questions about why I do what I do? What's gotten me to where I am? Where am I headed? Humble brad: I've been quite successful. What do I mean by successful? Success was once defined as the ability to avoid failure. When I heard it - it made so much sense to me that I owned it for my life.

Now hold on, I am not perfect and I have failed many times in life (like in Chemistry my senior year of high school, I had enough credits and didn't care to turn in my final assignment) but I'd like to believe I've avoided systemic failure. I remember telling my friend that, you know what? I am doing pretty good and if I can maintain the principles that have gotten me here, will I continue to see the same success? Hence my focus now will be on a set of guidelines.

 So, back to the question, what does it mean to me - to live my best life? 

"To live in peace with the Divine Providence and man, being of sound mind and body. To love and to be loved unconditionally. Providing for myself and those around me by utilizing my gifts and talents to create value and make a difference. To enjoy the fruits of my labor. Being the best me, I can be and inspiring others to do the same; thereby fulfilling my purpose to "Do Good" and in so doing, make the world a better place."

There is a lot there so let me unpack it a bit. This statement is the result of me evaluating my life and establishing my guidelines I mentioned above. These guidelines fall into about 6 areas or buckets as I call them. 

1. Health (Physical and Mental)

2. Wealth (Finances)

3. Faith (Spirituality)

4. Relationships (Family, Friends, Associates, Strangers)

5. Career/Education (Life's work, Skills)

6. Rest/Relaxation (Renewal)

As I said before, I am not perfect. Each of these buckets are not full 100% of the time; that's where the daily work comes in. I make every effort to fill each of these buckets but they leak or I pour them out with daily living. So, I have to ask myself, if I am not living my best life, what is required to make that happen? 

I can honestly say that I believe in 2022 I am truly living my best life. I also believe that life comes in seasons. Just as we have Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter - there are times where things in life just go extremely well and then tragedy or just life challenges happen. The Navy taught me to be prepared for all situations and I continue to apply that principle to my life personally. What will I do when the unexpected happens? Have plan A, B, and C. 

I don't have all the answers and everyones situations is different. My hope is that someone reads this and decides to do life differently, decide on a different path, decide to ask themselves are you living your best life; really? Decide to live their BEST life today not someday. What's holding you back?

Here are my current guidelines and I continue to tweak them as the year goes on.

1. Reduce Stress and Get Rest.  Life isn’t an emergency; plan ahead. Things that are important are seldom urgent and urgent things are seldom important. Live in the “not urgent” but “important” quadrant. 
2. Focus on Health. Move More (Exercise), Eat Less (Practice intermittent fasting.)
3. Remember to pray; ask for wisdom. If you need wisdom, ask the Divine Providence, and it will give it to you. It will not rebuke you for asking.
4. Practice Frugality. Spend smart. If you NEED it you need it, but check your wants on a regular basis. Consistently declutter - get rid of things on a regular basis.
5. Give Generously. Do for one what you wished you could do for all. 
6. Face Fears. Be FEAR-less. Hate being afraid of being afraid. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Never stop going forward because of what you THINK might happen. Either KNOW or Go. You Can Handle It.
7. Remain Open and Flexible. In action and in thought. Being rigid will cause you to break. Expect the unexpected. Be the blade of grass and not the Oak Tree in a storm.
8. Be Objective and Positive. Refrain from the desire to jump to conclusions and remain objective because what I think is rarely the case. Colin Powell says that Perpetual Optimism is a force multiplier. Accent the positive and negate the negative.
9. Be Ready, Willing, and Able. Be AWARE and PREPARED to CARE for those around you.
10. Trust your gut. Seek counsel and advice. Accept the advice but at the end of the day, go with your gut - it has for the most part served me well.