How Should One Live?

¶ … Live

How should one live

The " good life " is referred to by the Buddhists as "right livelihood." It has been referred to by others as " life not in the sense of financial riches but in doing what you want to do and living where you want to live. It has been said that one knows when one is living the good life when one greets every new day with anticipation and appositive outlook. Quality of life is a tough concept to define, and to measure it means measuring how you're doing in all of your daily activities, and that's a pretty tall order. There are days when my life seems full of frustrations, thwarted hopes and anguish that I just cannot see the point. When I look around me and observe the sheer perfection of a tiny insect or the majesty of a moonlit landscape, I cannot believe our world is a random grouping of molecules, left to evolve in a cosmos without design. When I read these words, I hear the promise of a richer life, a life filled with meaning and purpose. A life without an eternal perspective is indeed meaningless. It is a "chasing after the wind." (World Wide Web (http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/09.19/11-gomes.html)

To start living the "good life" for some means going for that total career change - from accountant to photographer, social worker to freelance writer, marketing manager to master gardener. For these people, the good life is when your passion also pays your way.

For others it's enjoying a better integration between work and family. A lot of people love the idea of working from home and being their own boss. Still others find themselves drawn to the idea of downshifting to a simpler lifestyle with fewer possessions - and pressures. (Esther Jungreis, The Committed Life, Cliff Street Books; (September 1999))

For me, having a life worth living is about all these things - and more. My vision of the good life starts with the commitment to bring certain intentionality to my life, to be an active participant instead of a mere observer. Doing work that feeds my soul is absolutely central to the equation, as is working for myself.

My vision of the good life is reflected in the motto as below, winners don't do different things they do things differently. I believe I am a winner because I am moving towards a better life or as one says a "good life"

There are as many dreams as there are people. Few, though, harness their dream to a practical plan of action. Sometimes a catalyst is needed to make a person take a decision to take that step which is necessary to move towards a better lifestyle or a more fulfilling sense of being.

It takes a lot to go from having a dream to actually living it. A series of clearly identifiable steps have been charted by many writers and believers of good living which are as follows

Get The Point

Get the Picture

Get Passionate

Get Over "It"

Get Real

Get Informed

Get Ready

Get Support

Get Going

Get Gratitude

Gathered over tuna sandwiches, fruit salad, and iced tea in the cafeteria, a group of students engage in their favorite lunchtime activity - commiserating about their assignments. Topping the agenda that day: too much homework, student politics and the latest in a seemingly constant series of complaints favoritism.

Twenty minutes has passed and Sandra looks at her watch realizing it's time to get back to the library. "Well you know what they say," she says with a deep sigh, "life sucks and then you die." Everyone nods knowingly as they reluctantly pick up their trays and head back to work.

The surroundings, the menu and the "complaints of the day" may change, but this is echoed every day by millions of frustrated, unhappy workers who feel stuck in their jobs. We shrug off our discontent and dream of retirement -- or, if we're lucky, of hitting the lottery. (Helen Nearing, Scott Nearing The Good Life: Helen and Scott Nearing's Sixty Years of Self-Sufficient Living, Schocken Books; Reprint edition (January 1990))

This sense of hopelessness is not surprising really. I, like so many, had come to believe that sacrificing our happiness, our health and our dreams for a paycheck was some immutable law of life. In the past few years, though, my thinking has shifted. Now I realize that when our dreams are larger than our belief in our right to pursue them, it's probably because we are missing what I have come to think of as The Point - capital letters intentional.

From landscaping services to in-home dog groomers to a $300 all-in-one contraption that wakes you with an alarm bell, makes your coffee, fries two eggs and toasts your bread at the push of a button, Americans are willing to pay for all kinds of time-saving services and devices designed to help us juggle our busy lives. And In order to afford these products and services we have to maintain the heavy workload that makes these things desirable in the first place.

Many operate under the mistaken belief that they don't have THE RIGHT to pursue their heart's content. That somehow suffering through 40 years of job misery is the price we must all pay for the joys of retirement. This is unfortunate indeed. Because the simple truth of the matter is, if you don't feel entitled to go after the life you want, you're destined to keep the one you already have.

It is a well-known fact that - when it comes to our final reflection, far more of us will look back and wish we'd done MORE in our lives than wish we'd done LESS. And I, for one, think that's a shame. (Helen Nearing, P. Goodman (Designer), Scott Nearing Living the Good Life: How to Live Sanely & Simply in a Troubled World, Schocken Books; Reprint edition (January 1990))

Forty-six percent of Americans surveyed by a recent Harris poll said "success" to them is not about work and/or money but about family and/or children. Another survey found of the top 20 considerations in choosing a job, a position that allowed for a personal life was rated number two, significantly higher than salary, which was ranked sixteenth.

One of the most compelling articles I've read on this subject appeared ten years ago in a magazine called Special Issue, which dedicated an entire edition to people who had pursued their dreams. In her article, "Dreams are not enough," nurse-turned-writer Elizabeth Berg shares the lessons she came to learn about the importance of following one's bliss. Asking and then answering her own question she writes, "What happens to our dreams? They die of lack of nourishment, that's what. 'Later,' we say and when we turn around, they're gone."