40 and Counting - Focusing on the Future

My last blog entry centered on how things in our past add value to our lives. This blog entry focuses on how we can move forward from 40…well, according to my “chronicles of a mad man” approach that is. Nonetheless, below are just a few things I feel are worthy of mentioning. These simple rules of thumb can be applied to our careers, relationships, hobbies, education, religion, etc.

Learn from our past
Most of us by now should know that we learn from our past to help shape our future. Take note…I did not say, “live in the past” as many are guilty of doing. I said “Learn”. This means we take a tally of everything good and bad to date, and make a conscious effort to gravitate towards those paths that have always proven (by past experience) to lead towards happiness. I have no doubt that hard times will continue to present themselves throughout our next 40 years. But...if we “learn” from our past , we have a better chance of coping with these things, or avoiding them completely, as we move toward the future.

Avoid Complacency Like the Plague
If one were to approach me on the street today and ask, “Are you satisfied with where you’re at in life?”, my answer would always be “NO”. Am I happy? Yes, but I’ll never be satisfied. How can we better our lives in the future, if we’re not willing to move from the spot we’re standing in today? We should never feel we’ve reached the pinnacle of our existence, thinking it can’t get any better than this. For the moment we do, we introduce complacency, which lacks motion and plants seeds of staleness that quickly grow to a life of “standing still”.

Encourage Change
The best way to avoid complacency is to introduce change in our lives. That doesn’t mean we should all rush out and buy new cars, get plastic surgery (hair plugs in my case), switch careers, or ditch our spouses. As most of us know, and have probably experienced firsthand, change for the sake of change can be meaningless, and sometimes downright dangerous. In my case, this mistake seems to come in the form of 4 wheels and a bigger monthly payment. However, when done right, change can help open our eyes, expand our minds, and introduce things that we never thought could bring gratification. We should all strive to continue learning and push ourselves to experience new things.