2023 March 14 A perspective on reimagining yourself, starting now!

Hi, this is Jim Cranston from 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com, the podcast and website all about re-imagining your life. Thanks for joining me tonight for some general thoughts on how to work on your own goals, starting today, no matter how late you think you are. So let's get started. 

Tonight's going to be a mixture of a little bit of scripting and then some extemporaneous things, for a variety of reasons. I'll explain why. I planned to continue with the goal setting. However, the day just led me in a completely different direction. One of the thoughts I often have, and possibly you do too, is being concerned about whether I’ll get something done before my time on Earth moves onto its next phase.

That can mean many things. For example, I'm very fortunate. I have generally good health, but that can always change. So I often wonder if I'm maximizing my value to others with my current suite of abilities. Now, I realize that every phase brings its own superpowers, but I certainly don't want to waste the opportunities I'm being given right now.

Things like, Are my priorities right? Am I spending my time doing the right sorts of things? I often look around at other people and think, They have a really pretty lawn. I spend time doing other things, helping people learn English. This isn't to pat somebody on the back, it’s just they and I have different priorities. That's the way it is. 

So are my priorities consistent with my goals? Am I spending enough time with my family? The answer to that, frankly, is no. So why is that? Granted, they're a distance away, but there are ways to solve that, like moving. Am I sharing and compassionate enough?

That's something that you have to look at internally, and decide if you're living up to your own expectations. Faith, no matter how you define it, whether you're just aware of nature or whether you follow a very orthodox religion, no matter how you define your faith, I would encourage you to have some sense of a being, whether it’s the common mindset of the entire world that you live in, or whether it's something more abstract like a God - you should have some guiding, not changing, thing guiding your life. Are you following your dreams? With all these priorities, have I been really focusing on the right ones?

Really make the most of them, because things like relaxation are very important, too. That's another area where I probably don't spend enough time. When you relax, then you rejuvenate and you're better for everyone at that point. Relaxing isn't wasting time, but you have to be mindful about how you do it.

Just hanging out, doing nothing - for some people it is rejuvenating or encouraging, and it gets them all pumped up. For me, it drives me insane. But going for a hike to a really pretty place, taking 300 pictures and pestering all my friends with pictures from where I was -  that's a lot of fun. So we all have different ways we get through life, and it's up to each one of us to look at those and ask, Wow, am I really living my life in a way that makes me feel fulfilled? 

As it happened today, it was just a particularly contentious day of work. It set a new record, by far. Then it also happens that this coming Thursday through Sunday of this week, I'll be attending a Tony Robbins Unleash the Power Within event, which I'm super excited about.

It’ll be the first time I've done that. I was on a mini one a few weeks back. I think I mentioned that. I have a lot of high expectations, both from that event and for myself. Then in April, I'm planning to attend an in-person James Wedmore event. I've mentioned James Wedmore in the past quite often. He's one of my mentors. Those are always super motivating. 

Plus, I'm super anxious to get working far more on this podcast and the courses for 7EveryMinute. Plus, like I mentioned earlier, maybe move closer to the kids and the grandkids. Now, if you're listening, which of those four items is totally inconsistent with the others? Yeah, one of them is getting to be completely unaligned with the rest of them. 

Aren't I too old to start a whole new career path? Shouldn't I have done this years ago? These are the sorts of thoughts that our brain puts in our head to keep us safe. You know, you’ve got a job, and the job really is pretty good. Do you really want to go try and start a new career path? Do you really want to move at this age? You know people around here.  Your brain's always trying to keep you safe and keep you from changing. But yes, maybe I am old.

I should point out that it’s a relative term. A lot of my audience and the people I speak with are Baby Boomers, Millennials, and people of that age. But age is relative to where you are. So when you're in your twenties, 30 seems quite old. So now you're turning 30, you’ll say, If I was going to start traveling the world, I should have done it when I was 20 before I started having kids. Or you're 40 and you say, I should have started that pension fund when I was 30, because now it's too late. I don't know if it's worth starting. 

You've probably heard the saying, The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the second best time is today. We're never too old to redefine our future. It may be a different redefinition than what we would have done 10 or 20 or 30 years ago, but we're wiser now, and we're probably better able to pick a path that's truly satisfying and fulfilling.

So the big takeaway for tonight is, if you've been wishing to do something different or start something new, but haven't because it's too late - well, I encourage you to ignore the time factor completely. Then decide if it's worth it. There are new realities as we age, whether we just turned 60 or just turned 30 with kids. It doesn't matter how old we are, but the best time to start to live your best life is right now. 

So, just a short one this evening. It’s something that has really been percolating around in my head. I was running down things that were coming up and I thought, you know, this is just lining up in such a way that it’s kind of silly to ignore it, and I really thought it was worth sharing with you all. 

So that's it for the evening. Good luck, happy envisioning your future. That's it for today. I send you all good wishes. Please remember the war in Ukraine. This is super important. I say that every week, and every week it is true. Lots of ways to donate in humanitarian ways and in more proactive ways. However you feel comfortable, even if you just talk about it to other people. It kind of comes and goes in the news, but it never goes for the people, either in Ukraine or affiliated in any way with the family and friends there.

Please think about that. UKR7.com. That's where you can go to donate. Please consider making a donation to help them. There's a link to World Central Kitchen there as well. WCK.org, another wonderful, humanitarian group. They prepare meals for people. Super good. 

Remember, one of the best ways to care for yourself is to care for others. So if you can and you're able, please check it out. As always, thank you for stopping by. If you found something interesting or useful, please pass it along. Please hit that like button. If not, please drop me a comment as to what you'd like to hear.

I'm probably also going to be doing more things on Instagram coming up. I've done some stuff there in the past, and it's just a fun media. Once that gets going over the next couple weeks, give me a watch there. I hope you find it entertaining.

So remember to live the life that you dreamed of, because that's the path to true contentment. Love and encouragement to everyone. See you next week on 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com. Thank you.