It can be challenging to assess your values when you’re considering a change, but you have the power of choice. Only you can decide how you feel about your lifestyle and if there are things you want to change or improve. Consider the following key areas for improving your quality of life. Any or all of them may be greatly enhanced by a positive change in your world view:
Your Family
Although the quality of family life ranges anywhere from wonderful to disastrous, everyone has a family of some kind. The big question is: what’s more important—the individual or the family group? The answer isn’t simple.
Each family member is unique and entitled to individual consideration. No set of rules or circumstances is perfect for everyone. On the other hand, no family member is an island. Members must cooperate to thrive, and even survive in a world where competition and the law of the jungle can rule—there is strength in numbers.
Various forces in modern culture are working to redefine the traditional biological or nuclear family and family values. It’s essential you take the time to identify and understand what’s most important to you and your family. It’s too easy to get caught up in a struggle to survive and spend the majority of your time, energy, and resources maintaining and paying for your home, cars, food, and all the things that make up your lifestyle.
Your Community
In many ways, communities are like extended families. They typically form from individuals or groups with common interests like neighborhoods, schools, business, religion, sports, etc. However, a community is never any stronger than its individuals.
Historically, strong involved individuals are an asset to their community, but the weak, disinterested, or uninvolved people can be liabilities, and sometimes the community suffers because of them.
You are part of many communities: member of the human race; citizen of a nation, state, or city; member of a church, civic group, political party, club, team, etc. There are endless possibilities to contribute. The quality of your membership relies largely on your involvement and the level of your commitment to each group. However, the strength of each of these groups depends in part on how much you care about and support your community.
Your Health
The health statistics of America are now among the worst in the industrial world! A combination of bad eating habits, less natural food, and more sedentary lifestyles are key offenders. Sadly, many people spend more time, money, and energy on their outward appearance than on overall health.
Unfortunately fast-paced lifestyles encourage fast food, pre-cooked, pre-processed, and practically “pre-digested” meals. Many people are more concerned about looking healthy than actually being healthy. Plastic surgery and a flood of cosmetics are promoted as the answer to any imperfection. Numerous methods and medicines are available to treat the results of unhealthy lifestyles. There’s an abundance of medications for headaches, pains, sleep problems, lack of energy, etc. And drugs in the form of alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea and harder drugs—simply cloak deficiencies in lifestyle. America is becoming a nation of spectators, rather than participants. Many more people watch their favorite team play rather than play on one. The result of these cultural norms is diminished health and fitness.
Education
Education is a wonderful tool to teach you how the world works, and how to work in it. It’s easier to change your life when you have the skills and knowledge necessary. No doubt your desire for financial freedom is part of your motivation for studying this Financial Fitness course. The purpose of education is not only to know more—but also to use what you learn. How much time do you allot each day or each week for education? Not just the accidental “stumbling over facts”—but actual planned and meaningful education. The answer can make a big difference in your pursuit of a better quality of life.
Education is a big contributor to your ability to change things. Knowledge is power. Without it you’re weaker, and often at the mercy of others who have knowledge. More importantly, education can give you power to make changes that will provide greater meaning and enjoyment to your life and to the lives of your loved ones.
Spirituality
Recently the World Health Organization defined human spirituality as “that which is in total harmony with the perceptual and non-perceptual environment.” In today’s world of technical enlightenment and secular insight, spirituality takes many forms. Definitions typically include aspects of higher consciousness, self-reliance, self-actualization, love, faith, enlightenment, self-sacrifice, community, and bonding, as well as many others.
Spirituality encourages you to look for sources of inspiration and power outside yourself for comfort, guidance, and refreshment from the many challenges of life. The concept of spirituality separates the human race from all other creatures. Cultures throughout history have a deep rooted belief in the human “soul,” and view it as an integration of your body, mind, and spirit. It’s a gift to accompany you through life, a living consciousness of a divine-like presence within us and around us.