Living A Full Life

"I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."
- John 10:10

Now, before you think I am going to turn this into a holy-roller style blog, let me put the above into context. I recently took a trip out West to Texas and Utah that did a lot for me in an area I feel is often overlooked by me (and likely by many people in modern life): perspective. I long ago lost count of the multitude of times in my life I have come to the jarring realization that I was living some facet of my life without the benefit of some real perspective.

And isn't that just so easy to allow to happen? You get up, rush through breakfast, get to work, get caught up in yet another fire drill that you've come to believe is of "mission critical" importance, stay too late at work, maybe get some time to go to the gym or get home for dinner a little late and then spend a little time seeking to unwind before going to bed. Sheesh... I got exhausted just reading what I wrote. That little day in the life view is not terribly unusual for a lot of people and one of the big problems with it is how ridiculously easy it becomes to see all of that as your sole world view.

Yikes.

So my trip out West pulled me out of a rut pretty much identical to what I described above and let me reclaim that precious, precious perspective (and also sharpen my alliteration abilities too). I'll get into the trip a little more in later posts, but whether it was the people I spent time with or the amazing vistas I took in (see the above photo of Zion National Park for proof of that), I just began to realize that I really had a lot of things totally out of whack... hence the quote I found in John 10:10. You don't need to be a Christian to appreciate the idea of how important it is to have life and have it abundantly.

My point of realization was that I was pouring an inordinate amount of my time, energy, efforts and self solely into work and my loved ones and friends were just getting leftovers and I damn well knew they deserved better. So therein lies the crux of the matter: If you keep allowing yourself to get bogged down in something that is not or should not be the primary driver of your life (work, stress, depression, addictions, fears, etc.), how in the world do you ever snap yourself back into proper perspective?

Here's what I think works well:

1. Solo time. How much time do you take in any given day to be free from distractions of every kind? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? Not at all? Build time into your day for just a bit of quiet time - it works absolute wonders. This can be meditation, prayer, taking a walk during lunch or just staring out the window at 2:35 PM on a weekday to clear your head for a few minutes.
   
2. Read more. Nothing like some jolts of information to make you realize there is much bigger world than that stack of papers on your desk. Newspapers, books and blogs (especially mine) certainly work well here.
   
3. Volunteer. While I have this #3, I would not put this one here from a ranking perspective (it just occurred to me third... gimme a break). Unleashing your inner do-gooder is an absolute win-win. You will come in contact with people who appreciate your help and you will get that much needed dose of how small problems really are. It's hard to be worked up about bad sales numbers when dealing with children battling leukemia or someone at a men's shelter who is just glad you are serving him a meal during the holidays.
4. Get out and talk to people. While this one popped into my head as more of something for the workplace, I am thinking this may be a bit more universally applicable. When was the last time you walked around to talk to your co-workers and just spent time listening to them without an agenda of your own? This is something I know I need to do more (especially as the supervisor of 9 people), but it can be really powerful to focus on the thoughts, needs and desires of someone else and put your own aside.
5. Floss. OK, OK... this has nothing to do with perspective, but holy mother of God... am I the only one who is not freaked out by Dr. Mayo saying "flossing can add 10 years to your life" or Dr. Raul Garcia firing out "Floss or die!"?!?!? I feel like I need to continuously run Glide between my teeth every hour of the day. Maybe that's twisted perspective. See, I made it fit in the end.
   

So what do you do to pull it all together a bit more? How do you stop your personal slides into the world of "Woe is me!"?