Don’t Let Your Boat Capsize
If You Want to be an Eagle, Then Soar With Eagles
Start your day with a little humor…
“A child and his father were visiting an elderly neighbor. They were raking the neighbor’s leaves, organizing the neighbor’s garage, putting the trash out, and performing other small jobs around the neighbor’s house. The child had not really seen the elderly neighbor up close, but on this day the child was going to meet the neighbor up close for the first time.
When the child met the neighbor up close he asked the neighbor how old he was, and the father was flabbergasted by his child’s question and attempted to apologize to the neighbor, but the old man just laughed and said that was OK, the child was curious. The elderly neighbor told the child he was 92 years old. The child had a look of disbelief and asked the neighbor,
Did you start at the number one?”
How funny, but true. I always ask the question, how am I viewed by others. Am I that crotchety old woman we see so often as people age, or am I that soft, understanding and giving version of myself. Toby Keith has a song that is called, “Don’t Let The Old Man In.” He was inspired to write it because of Clint Eastwood, who is 92 years young and still actively directing and producing movies.
If you’re female, don’t let the old woman in. If you’re male, don’t let the old man in. Don’t fall prey to becoming stodgy and ill tempered. And then you say, well why not? Look at the terribly turbulent and unpredictable times in which we’re living. Who can make sense of it, so why not just succumb to the negative and get on with it.
Well, let me tell you why. Life is so worth living on your terms, not someone else’s or not what is spoon fed to us via the news outlets, the internet, social media, and bitter old people. Those people are the ones who let the “old person” in their lives.
Look for people who inspire you. OK, they may not be movie directors, but they can be neighbors in your community, long-time friends, new friends, your partner, a distant relative. Today I’m calling a friend of my mothers who is 96 and still involved with all sorts of community programs designed for enrichment and giving back. She’s still going strong and has such a wonderful positive outlook on life. She personifies the old saying, “don’t worry, be happy.”
One of my friends is a true “Debbie Downer.” She has been gifted richness all her life by her doting husband and now her stepson, yet she just can’t get out of her way. She is bitter and caustic, and frankly, it is destroying our friendship because I simply can’t give enough to prop her up. And she is bringing me down, so it’s a difficult choice but I can’t continue to fly with penguins…BTW, they don’t fly.
Stress and issues seem to be a daily occurrence at this time in our society. We need to get used to the saying, “it’s always something.”
Optimism can help you to stay younger, age more gracefully, handle the stress from day to day living, and how to deal with fewer events as being stressful and let you work through them with a better emotional and physical outcome.
Boston University School of Medicine looked at how optimism impacts a person’s health and found that staying positive helps people interpret stressful situations differently. The conclusion was having more positivity and optimism led to more emotional well-being. The more optimistic people become, the more they can handle the stress of daily living.
Doesn’t there seem to be a study about almost everything these days.
Here are a few tips on how to feel happier and bring more optimism in your life.
- Believe in ourselves and our abilities to focus on the solution, not on the problem.
- Play a 30-second ‘movie’ of your life. Play this movie reel of what you’ve accomplished, and what you’d like in you’re here and now. It’s never too late to move forward. In this 30-second movie of your daily life include specific details about how you look and feel about yourself, where and how you live, what you’re doing with your life and what your life is doing for you. Play this through on a daily loop in your mind. This is simple mental exercise will instantly boost your mood and transform the way you think about yourself.
- Find any improvement to the current situation. Optimism is positive thinking. Orient yourself to success by getting into a habit of looking for improvement in your daily life no matter how big or small. A better diet, improving small areas of your home, taking classes, get some exercise, controlling how much clutter you let into your life, lose some weight, join into activities, go back to work, take up hobbies, and pursue friendships that you truly enjoy.
- Minimize obstacles to success. What kinds of distractions routinely get in your way of meeting your goals. You have no goals you say, well sit down and map out a few. We all need goals regardless of our age. Perhaps you call it your to do list. Unproductive habits? Negative people or saboteurs. One of the keys to achieving optimism is to make steady progress, and that means limiting distractions and temptations, so you don’t deplete your reserve of discipline before getting to your priorities done. Succeeding rather than failing keeps you optimistic.
- Give yourself a daily checklist of what you’ve gotten accomplished. Call it your daily check list done well. This simple gesture reinforces optimism and puts a whole lot of happiness and good feelings in your spirit.
- Nurture a happy body—optimism is easier when you feel good. It will also create a happier mind. Factor’s that interfere with one’s ability to moderate a good mood and positive energy include: lack of a good night’s sleep, depleted energy from poor eating and lifestyle habits, and very little exercise.
- Stay away from the constant complainers, or people who can’t do anything without dragging you into their sordid issues.
In my experience, you will feel a whole lot of optimism if you can start right now making some changes.
Don’t let the old woman or the old man in!
The other day I spent more time with some of the neighbors than I normally do. I noticed my energy level was great with those who were dealing with health or personal matters in a positive and constructive way. I ran into another neighbor and all she did was complain about every ache and pain and everything in her life. How drained I felt after those few minutes spent with her. Avoid these people at all costs.
We all have choices to make our life what and how we choose to make it. So my thought for the day, MAKE IT THE BEST LIFE YOU’VE GOT. SINCE YOU’VE ONLY GOT ONE, FILL IT WITH OPTIMISM AND POSITIVITY.
Don’t be a loser. Soar with those eagles. Boomers, please stay relevant and remember life is not a dress rehearsal.
Your BoomerGal Connie.