Live a Quality Life

The following are my favorite sayings:

— Good luck favors the prepared mind. —

— Work to live as well as possible, in harmony with others and the environment we share. —

— Accept things you cannot change, have the courage to change the things you can and should, and develop the wisdom to know the difference. —

— The mind tends to yield more of what we choose to focus on. —

— What goes around, comes around. —

 

The following summarize some of the most import things I've learned in my life.

Health

Take care of your mind and body, thus better enabling it to provide the capacity to earn success and enjoy happiness for the rest of your life.

Physical Health:

It's the body's nature to be healthy. But it needs:

  1. A Healthy Environment,
  2. Proper Nutrition,
  3. Moderate, Regular Exercise, and
  4. Plenty of Sleep.

Mental Health:

The brain is a powerful biological computer; and it depends on the health of your body to operate properly.

Its current programming is primarily the result of your prior experiences — What you've seen, done, and mostly what you've been told by yourself and others. There is a genetic component to our programming, but research on the subject of Nature versus Nurture has well established that Nurture (how we're raised — what we've learned and believe) can easily overpower our basic nature; it's call self-control.

You can change your programming!

  1. Take control of the things you think, say, and do.
  2. We are naturally motivated by feelings of pain and pleasure. Take advantage of this by associating pleasure with the desired behavior, and pain with the other.
  3. Repetition and strong emotions reinforce the beliefs derived from our experiences.
  4. It takes about 3 to 4 weeks of serious reinforcement to break an old habit and well establish the foundation of a permanet life change.

Live in a nurturing, stimulus rich environment!

Happiness

Serene happiness is a desirable state of mind that can be generally achieved!

  1. Decide to be Happy,
  2. Take a Deep Relaxing Breath, and
  3. Avoid the people and things (triggers and patterns of behavior) that cause sorrow.
  4. Straighten your Spine, Lift your Chin Up, put a Smile on your Face, share a few Kind Words and a little appropriate Humor; and just
  5. Be Content (hum or whistle a tune, recall a pleasant experience, consider the beauty around you, practice grateful meditation and/or prayer).

It's just that simple! And if this doesn't seem to work, check your attitude, commitment, and health foundation, and then just fake it until you make it. Note that researchers have found that there is a bidirectional mind/body connection between the expression on our face and how we feel (e.g., when we put a genuine smile on our face, we become happy).

Success

Earned success is a fulfilling sense of accomplishment. Success breeds Success. The following items power the cycle forward:

General:
  1. Attitude Is Everything! Think success. Use positive & constructive speech. Beware of negative influences.
  2. Decide on Your true Dreams and Objectives. Visualize yourself achieving these goals. Live your dreams.
  3. Prioritize your Objectives. What's most important to you? Understand why. Consider the consequences. (Be careful what you ask for, you might get it.)
  4. Develop a Specific Plan with Simple Steps to achieve your goals. Use new information & results to update your plan.
  5. Execute a Planned Step. Don't be afraid to make a mistake. Make iterative functional improvements.
  6. Be Innovative. Try other approaches. It's okay to be different. Following the herd is a sure path to mediocrity.
  7. Analyze Details and Results. Get all the facts, even conflicting views. Learn from both success and failure.
  8. Manage your Time. Be Priority Driven! Focus your attention and avoid distractions.
  9. Be Patient, Persistent, and Work Hard. Success is a marathon, not a sprint. It's okay to rest; but never give up!
  10. Invest in Yourself. Go back to school or read books. Get training and acquire new skills. Never stop Learning.
  11. Be Kind, Honorable and Dependable. Learn to Understand, Respect, and Forgive others. Lead by example!
  12. Help and Support the people around you. Seek mutually beneficial, synergistic solutions!

Financial:
  1. Live within your means. It's okay to use credit cards; but pay the balance due before the due date — avoid consumer debt! (Why pay a growing interest premium for discretionary items?)
  2. Prepare for your current needs. Accumulate short-term cash to pay for near-term purchases. Whenever possible, protect your purchasing power — the total return on your savings should keep up with the rate of inflation after taxes are paid. This can be accomplished by investing in appropriate top-quality debt instruments (e.g., Money market fund, shorter-term bond funds, laddered CDs or T-Bills). Maintain an emergency fund — cash reserves to cover 3 to 6 months of living expenses, should you need to find a new job, or for whatever life throws at you.
  3. Accumulate long-term investments to prepare for future needs and wants. The goal is wealth creation and capital preservation. First, take advantage of all employer-matching contributes to a retirement plan. Then max out a tax-free (Roth IRA) or at least a tax-deferred retirement account (e.g., Traditional IRA). If you do not yet know how to manage your individual investments, then dollar-cost average a low-cost, broad-market index fund e.g., VBINX); and learn how to harvest these investments before you retire.
  4. Buying a well-located, low-maintenance, affordable house can be a good investment, if you plan to live there for at least five years (you have to overcome closing costs). But don't think of your home as just an investment. Your home should always be thought of as shelter, an expanse to be managed. It always cost money to live, and if you expect to move or need mobility, renting is likely to be the much better option. However, if you expect to be somewhere for more than five years, consider buying a home as a hedge against inflation, locking in a low monthly payment. (You don't want to lose your home or damage your credit just because you run into a little economic difficulty. Note that you can always make extra principal payments, just beware of pre-payment penalties). Having your home paid for is a budget comforting retirement asset and a great step towards reasonable asset allocation (diversification).
  5. Start your Retirement Planning early (Check out my paper on the Economy, Markets, and Profitable Insights and my Retirement Plan).

Keys to Financial Success:
  1. Do what you are passionate about. Without passion, your work is not going to power your life forward, it will be harder to be at your best or better than others who are driven by passion.
  2. Do something that you are inherently good at. We all have our relative talents (strengths and weaknesses). Spending your life doing something that is inherently difficult for you puts you at a real disadvantage to other with that talent.
  3. Do something that creates value and that can be sold to others who will gladly pay for that product or service. Creating a widget that no one else wants may be self-satisfying, but it certainly is not going to make you a fortune.
  4. Although not required, it helps a lot to surround yourself (to collaborate) with other financially successful people and with people that support your dreams.

Stan Benson