Maximizing Your Life vs. Survival

What is it to have truly lived a full life, or put a better way by William Wallace, "Every man dies. Not every man really lives."  So many of us get stuck just existing, piddling away our days or more likely getting distracted by the day in day out events our either our lives or the the lives of the people around us.  My life the past 2 years has reflected this arc where due to a death in my family, my wife sunk deep into depression and has basically had to piece her life back together.  Meanwhile my kids are at a great age where their lives are simply exploding with all sorts of activities and adventures.  For many years I have anticipated this phase of my life where I get to coach teams and truly soak in life through the eyes of children. There is no doubt that the world is a magical, mysterious and amazing place to a 4 year old.  Every day is met with a combination of excitement, innocence and adventure.  But life also does not go the way any of us want sometimes.  For a 4 year old this means dropping your drink on the ground if you don't like how it tastes and then breaking down crying.  For an adult we encounter and cope with all types of things we don't like.  Unfortunately our version of dropping the cup looks a lot different.  The pain and suffering usually happens on the inside and only in time does it manifest itself on the outside.  We buffer the disappointments, the pain and the suffering. Some are better at coping than others and life's obstacles make us stronger or at least more philosophical over time. 

We spend so much of our lives just trying to survive and this has been true for most generations of humans.  Simply staying alive for most people is an accomplishment.  However, I have always taken a different tact on life; I wanted to see what my life would look like if I truly tried to maximize my life.  Call it living life to its fullest, being a Rennaisance Man, or attempting to be the greatest version of myself that I can be - striving to do life the right way.  What does that mean to me:

• Greet each day with a positive attitude
• Be good to other people; be charitable; take care of those less fortunate than me
• Apply all of my skills and talents
• Seek out life's adventures through travel and exploration
• Consume the world's creativity through books, music, movies, and art
• Never stop playing
• Challenge myself physically; be fit; eat right; exercise

There is no doubt that I have done some of these things the past few years, but I have also felt like I have fallen short because I was simply in survival mode.  There was not enough time or energy to take life to the next level.  Why is it so easy to get off track and so hard to stay on track?  We simply take our eye of the prize and before we know it weeks, months and years fly by without even noticing that we have transformed into a mere shadow of our highest selves.  Our lowest selves are that part of us that simply wants to sit on the couch and not work out, or just say yes to that little piece of cake at a child's birthday party, or even forgetting what makes us happiest in life.  For me, writing has always been the one thing that has made me happy and centered.  I am most connected to my higher self when I put pen to paper and connect with my soul.  We all carry around so much wisdom inside of ourselves that we don't know how to tap into. If we just think about it we know the next right thing to do or how to react to situations. Where does this wisdom come from?  What is our higher self?  Is this a connection to our soul or to God?  In the book Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss, he touches on this subject of tapping into the wisdom of all the previous lives we have lived.  This also touches on the concept of new souls vs. old souls.  People that take life in stride are move evolved in some way or maybe they have just done this more times so they have more experiences to draw upon.

There is no doubt we all aspire to live a great and grand life.  We do want to suck the marrow out of life and experience all that life has to offer, but we also don't want to lose sight of what is more important - truly appreciating what we have and the time we have with loved ones.  How we go about figuring that out is truly a personal choice.  For me, that means finding time to get perspective and then re-entering life and giving everything I have to make the most of this precious life.