Mid Life Celebration

Springtime Singles Rebirth

The new buzz isn’t from a can or a bottle.

The new buzz is from a ready and willing heart.

The long way is the short cut.

Baby Boomers and Gen X-er’s have the greatest opportunity to be a catalyst for positive change.

Old habits are hard to break and almost never broken.

As the saying goes, “Put up or shut up.”

The world needs role models who do more than talk about what needs to be done.

Are you that kind of person?

Are you a thermometer or a thermostat?

Lane 8, Impossible?

“When everybody tells you that you are being idealistic or impractical, consider the possibility that everybody could be wrong about what is right for you.” — Gilbert Kaplan

MONEY

Top ten MONEY questions you should have answers to:

1.  Do you spend less than you earn?

2.  What is your net worth (assets minus liabilities)?

3.  Do you have a CPA and Attorney?

4.  Do you have a will?

5.  Is your image tied to your possessions?

6.  How much do you donate to charity?

7.  Do you have a passive income source(s)?

8.  How are your investments and assets diversified?

9.  What size is your rainy day fund?

10.  What’s your retirement date, and plan afterwards?

These are the basic, fundamental questions you should have ready answers to. Money is the one most people struggle with understanding how it works.

There is a Peace that surpasses all anxiety, when we have a solid, practical, and proactive approach to Money.

SPIRIT

Top ten SPIRIT questions you should have answers to:

1.  What is Love?

2.  What is more important than Love?

3.  What is Hate?

4.  What is worse than Hate?

5.  How does the mind or body influence Spirit?

6.  If you or your dearest loved one was dying, what would you do?

7.  How do you count your blessings?

8.  Whom do you thank for your blessings?

9.  How often do you pray?

10.  What’s at the very center of your spiritual beliefs?

These are the basic, fundamental questions you should have ready answers to. If not, you will not have Joy in your Spirit, nor will you have Peace in your Soul.

It’s that simple.

BODY - One of Life's Big Four

Things you should know the answers to:

1.  What’s my weight?

2.  What’s my cholesterol?

3.  What’s my blood pressure?

4.  What’s my BMI (body mass index)?

5.  What’s my trigyliceride level?

6.  What’s my resting heart rate?

7.  What do I do for exercise?

8.  How important are my eating habits?

9.  What are my health goals?

10. What are my health beliefs and habits?

Knowing these is crucial for being personally responsible for your health. Not knowing these is a recipe for disaster. There are no short cuts to finding Peace.

There is a Peace that surpasses all understanding when you have done your best. Making excuses chases Peace away.

MIND

Top Ten MIND questions you should have answers to:

1.  What do I read?

2.  What do I study?

3.  How much time do I spend learning?

4.  How much time do I spend teaching others?

5.  How well do I know my priorities?

6.  What do I watch on TV?

7.  Who are my friends?

8.  How do I stay focused on continuous learning?

9.  What is my IQ?

10.  What should I be learning that I’m not?

Knowing these will give you Peace.  There is no short cut.

Midlife Is Like An Ocean

Midlife Crisis is a household name.

There are two Mid Life Celebration Guest bloggers who are not.

Up first, this Sunday, is Erika Liodice, from Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania.

Erika found Mid Life Celebration and invited me to be a Guest Blogger at her blog, Beyond The Gray.

Lorie Sheffer is also from Pennsylvania, and from my hometown of Spring Grove.  Small World After All.

You’ll find their Midlife perspectives similar, but different.

Carpe diem!

Impossible Is Nothing

Click here to read the six steps from an Everyday Health article.

Or, simply read my list that says the same thing, just differently:

1. Make your goal impossible
2. Start small, I mean seriously small
3. Plan on it taking the rest of your life
4. Do it for someone else, someone really (significantly) important
5. Plan for set backs and mis-steps
6. Have fun and reward yourself occasionally
7. (Bonus step) Search, and find, your indomitable will along way

Ready, set, go!

Spirit

Midlife heartbreak or midlife opportunity.  Pretty simple.  Two choices.  You get to pick one.

If you and your spouse (and yes, want to acknowledge some readers will not be parents), worked hard all your life and played by the rules, and you gave birth to a child without eyes and never able to walk, which would you pick?

Mid Life heartache or mid life opportunity?

Well, there was a Family that had to make this choice.  They were featured on ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition as well as numerous other media pieces, including a heartwarming You Tube Video feature, about 6 minutes long, available at the end of this post.

One of my “secrets” to unspeakable  joy is the daily effort to read, listen, watch, experience, think, do and reflect on the countless blessings that surround my ordinary life.

You have all these blessings too.  But in order to feel the Peace and Contentment that are the fruit of these blessings, you must become fully aware.

You must become willing to invest time everyday.  Even if it’s only six minutes. Will today be another day to postpone your new beginning?

If it’s not, click here.

No Easy Answer

Two simple choices:

1. Ease up and just deal with whatever comes your way
2. Proactively, relentlessly pursue a cure

They both have pros and cons.

Welcome to life – the real world.

Two Simple Choices. Pick One.

Simplicity is Complicated

Simplicity is an elusive goal sometimes.

Ok, simplicity is elusive most of the time.

But so are a lot of things that are important.  Should that stop us from our pursuit?

There is only one, resounding answer to this question.

And maybe by tomorrow I’ll have my movie soundtrack song(s) to share with the world.  This was a fun, and frustrating, exercise.

And anything but simple.

Should have seen it coming.

Hard To Pick Just One

First thing on the list today, inspired by the Third Day song I’m currently listening to:

1. THANK YOU Mid Life Celebration readers for visiting

It’s simply joyful to know that so many people visit each day. Your visits humble me, inspire me.

Second thing on the list: If a movie was made of your life, what song would be featured?

If it’s easier, what top two or three songs? Hard to pick just one.

Breathtaking

“To Love and be Loved.”

“Wait! That’s it? That’s all you got? Are you kidding me?”, people might be thinking.

And I say, “What? it’s too simple for you?”

Hello. Earth to astonished person. Wake up. Of course it’s simple.

It’s profoundly simple, and yet simply profound.

“To Love and be Loved.”

Most of life is simple. It’s our nature to want to complicate things, to believe, “Everything is important.”

Why?  It’s remains a mystery to this very day.  Perhaps it’s the whole “keeping up with the Jones” syndrome.

Simplicity is the way.  The only way.

By the way, “I’ll bet you still don’t have an answer, do you?”, he thought to himself as he finished writing this blog post.

Mid Life words are helpful. So are mid life phrases:

• Just do it
• Carpe diem
• Life is short, play hard

Life can change in an instant.  This One-Take-You Tube video I shot the other day while leaving from my podiatrist illustrates this perfectly.

Life is short, play hard. Carpe diem. Just do it.

And expect Joy to follow.

Nothing Under Mid Life

Are you getting this? Mid Life Crisis versus Mid Life Celebration.

These are simply mid life words, but the difference between the two sets of words is as profound as the difference here:

• Hate and Love
• War and Peace
• Terrorist and Missionary
• Dishonest and Honest
• Criminal and Saint
• Death and Life
• Apathy and Passion
• Crisis and Celebration

Have I told you lately how much joy it brings to know there are others out there who benefit as much from Mid Life Celebration as I do?

Three days away from New Year’s Eve. Got big plans for 2010?