Think Positive
What are your Lifestyle Principles?
Do you have any? Do you NEED any? Isn’t Lifestyle just “Natural?”
My friend Randy Smith is always commenting on lifestyle features and effects – telling his Readers to enjoy “Loving Life, Living it with Passion, And Passing it on!”
That sounds good to me, but I wouldn’t dream of “stealing” his pitch!
Randy recently posted a very amusing but thought provoking article based on a variety of quotes from Leviticus (guess who sent it him? – OK, it was me, I just didn’t think of using it in my Blog!).
However, it really set me thinking about the vagaries of human beliefs and just how strong an effect they can have on so many lives. Now I’m not one to discuss religions, or religious lifestyle, “Each to their own” is my maxim, as long as it doesn’t harm anyone who happens to disagree!
However, I’ve been giving some thought to my own “lifestyle” views. It’s odd isn’t it, how we all have some idea of how we think we live, but don’t necessarily find it easy to spell it out if someone dares to ask – “What’s your lifestyle secret?”
I’m not usually stuck for words but I couldn’t think of a short answer to that when I was recently working on a part of the iClick University – http://bit.ly/9vcR1hUClick “Homework” that Richard Butler set me. I do have a lifestyle guide, or theme, but it’s based on a two page document.
I was reminded of it again today when talking to an old ex-Army friend of mine who is now bed-ridden with a long term illness. We talk every now and then, and I often write to George (in the MOST non-PC fashion possible) as I know that it can give him a lift – I understand what makes him laugh, we share the same sense of humour!! George was talking about the need to ignore the unfairness of life in general and the importance of being positive and knowing just what things were really important to a person. So I printed out and laminated a copy of my Lifestyle “Golf Balls” theme for him – I posted it too, he should have it tomorrow! As a result of all this serious thinking (very hard work for a “skimmer” like me) I thought I should post it here as well because I do feel that it may help to nudge you into giving your own beliefs a bit of a stretch and a run through the “Do I still feel this way?” tester.
Should I Call This My Lifestyle: – Mantra – Creed – Doctrine – Guideline – or is it just good old Common Sense?
I picked up the original of this Lifestyle Comment in my mail a couple of years ago, I don’t even remember who sent it me, but over the next year it slowly became the mainstay of my outlook and approach to lifestyle in general. My son Philip has also adopted it as one of his reference points, and I believe he even uses it in part of his training patter in the Police Force.
Here it is – a Lifestyle Principle In A Jar -…….. simple but so very clear!
The Mayonnaise Jar and Two Beers
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers.
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
The professor picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’
The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the grains of sand. The students laughed.
‘Now,’ said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your lifestyle. The golf balls are the important things— your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favourite passions— and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.
The sand is everything else—the small stuff. ‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.
‘Pay attention to your lifestyle, to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first— the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.’
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented.
The professor smiled and said, ‘I’m glad you asked.’
The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.
“Each to their own” is my lifestyle maxim, as long as it doesn’t harm anyone who happens to disagree!
But – remember your Golf Balls!
Continue reading about My Lifestyle Guide – Take Care Of Your Golf Balls
“Think Positive” and “Count Your Blessings”
These are personal comments, not much of an Internet Marketing slant, but maybe with some educational value – like “Think Positive” and “Count Your Blessings”!!
I posted this a couple of months back in Joel Comm’s World Village Site, but as my Blog is undergoing a hefty revamp I thought I’d add it here, now that I am officially an Old Age Pensioner! Please bear in mind that this was written in March.
I am redesigning Major-Reviews – it’s a Positive Move!
Yes, I am redesigning Major-Reviews, and also building a Major-Reviews-Bonus site – plus adding a DOTedu Major-Reviews site too (plus a Blogger Blog Major-Reviews which is already lurking somewhere in the depths of Google, busily breeding a host of personal spiders — ??). I’m obviously quite keen on this positive style site title!
So, here’s a little bit of my personal history, just out of random interest……… and don’t worry, this isn’t the bit where I lived in Keith’s Car, Jonny’s Back Office, Omar’s Cubicle or Mike’s Cardboard Box!
In The Beginning……………
I first took a gasp of English air 6 days after VE Day, in a rural part of Lancashire on the wetter side of the Pennines.
Being born so soon after such a historic and long awaited moment swayed my parents’ minds towards patriotic endeavour. Hence my initials were inevitably declared as VJ, reflecting their hopes for a quick resolution of the Japanese War that still raged on so far from that soggy, windswept Lakebank that was our home at the time!
Being declared on my Birth Certificate as “Victor John” was one thing, but as neither parent really liked “Victor” as a name I was always known as John….. and thus began my lifelong battle with a split personality! – Forever since those far off sulphurous days in the swirling yellow smog of the downwind sector of Manchester’s shadow I have been “Victor” to Banks, Customs and Excise, Doctors’ Receptionists and just about every other official body I brushed swords with, but Jolly John to everyone else – from School Cleaner to Admiral!
Have you come across these books in the “From You To Me” Series? They’re the latest secret weapon that the youth of UK today have in their armoury to tease and torture their worthy elders. You’re just recovering from a hefty dose of Brussel Sprouts at Christmas (because you’ve always been taught to “eat up your greens”), or sliding down into your armchair after a heavy portion of Birthday Cake (does anyone really like marzipan?), when slap-bang-wallop! Next thing you know you have a wonderfully wrapped bundle covered in paper and three rolls of sellotape thrust under your nose – while several little darlings demand that you force your way into it quickly, so that they can get back home to their Weewees, or whatever it is that they prance about with half the day and night! When you finally force your way in (thank goodness for Swiss Army Pocket Knives) to wonder at the delights of the treasured “Prezzie” what do you find????? A book resembling a Diary, which you are then duly obliged to fill with explicit detail in answer to some of the most challenging questions a senior citizen can be asked. (I mean to say – “Tell Me About Your Wedding Day” is either an invitation to Libel, something for after the Readers’ Watershed, or merely the call for a “How the Heck should I remember – ask your Grandma, she’s never let me forget it either!”
Anyhow, I digress a bit….. what was I talking about? Was it positivity or focus? The font I’m using is far too small for my poor eyesight and my slippers keep sliding off as I pull myself forward to peer at the screen. Still, let’s do be positive, it beats standing at the Kitchen Worktop having “Grandma” tell me yet again how she’s finished all 3 of her books whereas I’m only half way through my first. She always could remember all the embarrassing things I’ve done, whereas I was never allowed to mention hers – ON PAIN OF DEATH!
Maybe I’ll get away with one or two here, if I can recall them…….. it was on the Royal Yacht Brittania that one occurred and everyone else had a good laugh but Grandma. We were in Montreal at the time, doing our bit to keep the former Colony civil, when we were invited to one of those Cocktail Parties where we Brits fly the flag and get to talk as loudly as we like in English whilst the natives lurk about speaking French as Frogishly as they can! Oh no, digressing again, I knew I’d used the wrong keyword for this Village homily, maybe I’ll change it to “sorry, where was I?”!
We dressed up, drove to the harbour, climbed aboard (actually I believe it was a rather splendid Gangplank!) and bent forward to cross the Royal threshold through one of those Bulkheads built for the mini sailors of old. as we stood upright again before three beautifully groomed and gold-braid bedecked “Admirals” Grandma’s belt popped off and fell to the floor.
Before I could pick it up for her and head for the Brandy Dry (“Horses Necks”) she scrabbled for it herself whilst I apologised – I felt obliged to – and said “Sorry Admiral, she’s always dropping them”! Neither of us was prepared for the sight of three rows of gold braid heaving up and down as if in a choppy swell, as gales of stifled laughter burst from the red faced august bodies of Naval Blue before us. Just one of life’s little moments to me, it was a grand evening with the Marine Band playing on deck in the sunset – another rich thread in the golden tapestry of life……… apparently not quite how Grandma saw it. My ears still ring today, but I did manage to drive home after many of those delicious “Horse’s Necks” that the Royal Navy lavish on anyone who’ll entertain them!!
Well, long past my bedtime, I still work for a living (if you can call it that). As you just may have gathered, it’s now only just over a month till the 65th Anniversary of VE Day……. so I’m almost 65 and could, in Utopia, consider retirement. But here, I’ve got Grandma to keep happy, so I have to find some way of earning a pension…….. maybe I’ll write about that little village in Herefordshire…….. next time I remember how to get back in here – think positive, I WILL be back!
PS: – Feel free to take a look at another of my “Life Comments” at My Golf Balls
“Positively” - Byee for now
Grizzly Grandpa John - (Major, Royal Corps of Signals – Retired, but Positive)
