More Bright Ideas for Better Living from Lifescope.

Subject: Lifescope TIPs & QUIPs [30] "Your Perspective on Life"

TIPs & QUIPs, the free occasional email of helpful hints and quotes (and
sometimes challenging suggestions) for getting the most from life.

In this issue:
     *** WiseWords
     *** This Issue's Theme
     *** Suggested Resources
     *** Thrive On! Recommended Site


*** WiseWords ***                                     [TOP]
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"We know what we are, but know not what we may be."  
 --William Shakespeare
 
"It's not only the most difficult thing to know one's self, 
 but the most inconvenient."  
 --Josh Billings

"The farther back you can look, 
 the farther forward you are likely to see."
 --Winston Churchill

(For a collection of some of our favorite WiseWords, see our web page at
<http://www.lifescope.com/pages/WiseWords.html>.)

*** This issue's theme: Gaining Perspective on Your Life      [TOP]
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Dear Reader:

PERSPECTIVE is one of the most precious assets I've gained over the
years I've lived. Or rather, I should say my *awareness* of the VALUE
of perspective is the asset I've gained. As the saying goes, "Wise
indeed is the person who knows what they don't know." (I must be getting
very wise, because I am constantly discovering more I don't know.)
The unspoken lesson from this saying, is about what happens when you
know you don't know. And that is, the sooner you know you don't know,
the sooner you are likely to do something about it.

So let me suggest that one thing you don't know, is how you will feel 
towards the end of your life. Perspective usually comes at a price. 
For many, the price is the regret of not having lived life differently.
I was struck by an article along these lines, by Richard Leider, a
counselor, trainer, career coach and author. I hope you take the time
to contemplate these words and how they might affect your life choices.

                                                   -- Lee Lukehart


    MAKE YOUR DECISIONS THE WAY SENIOR CITIZENS WISH THEY HAD.
    
    For nearly 25 years, I've been doing interviews with senior
    citizens, asking them to look back over their lives and talk about
    what they've learned. I've conducted more than 1,000 interviews
    with people who were successful in their jobs, who retired from
    leading companies after distinguished careers. Almost without
    exception, when these older people look back, they say the same
    things -- things that are instructive and useful for the rest of
    us as we make decisions going forward in our lives.
    
    1. They say that if they could live their lives over again, they
    would be more reflective. They got so caught up in the doing, they
    say, that they often lost sight of the meaning. Usually it took a
    crisis for them to look at their lives in perspective and try to
    reestablish the context. Looking back, they wish they had stopped
    at regular intervals to look at the big picture.
    
    They also sounded a warning: Life picks up speed.
    The first half of your life is about getting prepared and getting
    established. Then time shifts gears. You hit the second half of
    your life, and everything moves faster. Days turn into weeks,
    weeks into months, and all of a sudden, you're 65 years old.
    Looking back, they say, you realize that time is the most precious
    currency in life. And as they got older, having time for
    reflection became even more important.
    
    2. If they could live their lives over again, they would take more
    risks. In relationships, they would have been more courageous. And
    in expressing their creative side, they would have taken more
    chances. I think it was Oliver Wendell Holmes who said, "Most of
    us go to our graves with our music still inside us." Many of these
    people felt that, despite of their successes, their music was
    still inside them. Almost all of them said that they felt most
    alive when they took risks. Just being busy from business made
    them numb. Aliveness came with learning, growing, stretching,
    exploring.
    
    3. If they could live their lives over again, they would
    understand what really gave them fulfillment. I call that the
    power of purpose: doing something that contributes to life, adding
    value to life beyond yourself. Purpose is always outside yourself,
    beyond your ego or your financial self-interest.
    
    We all want both success and fulfillment. Success is often
    measured in external ways, but there's an internal measure of
    success, and it's called fulfillment. Fulfillment comes from
    realizing your talents -- adding value and living by your values.
    Fulfillment comes from integrity, from being who you are and
    expressing who you are as fully as possible. It doesn't have to do
    with your job description or the specifics of your work. It has to
    do with how you bring your self to your work, regardless of what
    that work is.

From an article by Richard Leider in Fast Company issue 13 page 114.
[Exerpted under auspices of Copyright Act of 1976, Section 107]
Full text at <http://www.fastcompany.com/online/13/ldrplus.html>.


*** Suggested Resources ***                                       [TOP]
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Life Skills: Taking Charge of Your Personal and Professional Growth
by Richard J. Leider
   (softcover book, 196pp) 
      SRP$17.95 --  (see link below for special price)

   BUY this item online NOW at AMAZON.COM.



*** Thrive On! Recommended Site ***                              [TOP]
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Evolution's Voyage  <http://www.evoyage.com/assumptions.htm>
This site provides resources which support the premise that the 
psychology of humans has a profound biological basis. I think it ties
in well with Gaia theory -- that everything we do, think and feel
has a broader biological effect. It provides a different tilt on why
"mother culture" exerts so strong an influence upon you, the individual.


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