Life De Luxe

Life De Luxe

Several years ago, I spent the summer reading about Marie Antoinette. It was interesting for a number of reasons, one being the luxury she lived in. Except in some important ways, it really wasn’t.

She was surrounded by expensive stuff, but didn’t have air conditioning in the hot summer, or central heat in the cold winter. She couldn’t hop in a car or on a bus and get somewhere fast, she had to lurch around in a carriage for days to do a trip I could manage in a few hours.

She didn’t have much freedom to choose what she wanted to do, or where to go. She had very strict rules about her behavior in general and was watched like a hawk. Poor little queen, my life is so much nicer in so many ways.

Luxury.

I can communicate instantly with people I love all over the world. Instantly. I am so old that I remember when calling long distance meant that you talked as fast as you could for three minutes, and it cost a fortune. Now, pfft! We can make a video connection to anyone online for free. What luxury.

I can go pretty much anywhere I can think of to go. It will not cost tens of thousands of dollars to do that. Airfare is relatively cheap, as are trains, and ships. I can rent a car almost anywhere. I don’t need an entourage because for the most part there are tourist bureaus and travel agencies to help me. Luxury.

I have electric lights, climate control, hot and cold water plumbing that can rise hundreds of feet in the air. I have stoves and ovens and microwaves. Food processors, vacuum cleaners, washing machines and permanent press clothes,  that give me hours of leisure every week, a luxury most of humanity has never known.

I have choices to make unrivaled in the history of the world. With the luxury of free time from all the time-saving appliances my life is full of, I get to decide what I want to do. So I have ToDo lists; the master list, the daily list; I have my WannaDo list, like a bucket list without death attached, and my BeDoHave lists.

I have resources the likes of which, until recently,  no monarch on earth could have imagined, much less enjoyed.

With the amazing resources of time I have, I also have the responsibility to spend that time wisely. Where do I commit my time? Do I commit my time to something valuable, to make a contribution, or do I commit my time to TV, or other wasters? Well, I succumb to the siren song of the time wasters often enough, but I am also aware of the great gift.

I have found that the best way for me to spend my free time wisely is with routines and habits. Like my habit of writing to you everyday. I have my routines in place, and then I can spend some time frittering time with joyful abandon instead of guilt.

How have I changed from counting all I lack to reveling in the luxury of my life?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2014 all rights reserved 05272014

WAHOO!!

WAHOO!!

How do you measure success for yourself? Do you have super high standards so you don’t get there very often? Do you have super low standards so you are almost always there? What do you think?

I like to have a variety of standards for how I measure success, depending on the situation.

Why am I successful? How do things go my way? What makes me victorious?

When I get home, I like to review my day at work. What was I successful at? What do I want to change, or work on? Is there someplace where I need to tweak my attitude? What do I need to let go of to have a nice evening? What do I appreciate about my day?

Usually by the end of my review, I’m feeling pretty successful. I’ve often found things to be pleased about. I’ve often found things to feel proud of, or I feel accomplished. If I feel bad at the end of the day, I know I need to flip that around. I try to do that before I even go in the house. Kickin’ off my emotional shoes, as it were.

Taking that bit of time to look back over stuff, and to think about the Wannado’s for tomorrow, helps me think about resolutions, and solutions; the outcomes I actually want.

Over and over, we find out that we will enjoy our lives more when we take a little bit of time to think about what we want, when we take a bit of time to think about how we will decide we are successful, when we take a bit of time to consider how to progress, how to solve, how to resolve.

Some time back, I realized that I had taken success to be synonymous with selling out, ignoring my values for some kind of personal gain. Why would I want to be successful if that’s what it meant? So I had to redefine success for myself. I had to do the same thing with “winner” and “compliant” and a number of other words over the years.

Over and over, we find that the semantics rather than the idea, are getting in the way. Usually, all we need to do is make a little shift somewhere, change a word, modify a definition, and we can take on a new concept that makes things way better.

Why am I successful? What makes me a winner? How do I find solutions?

When I decide what these words mean to me, instead of just rejecting them out of hand, I accomplish several things, all of which may sound silly. I stop being a word-victim, that is, a victim of language that might actually be useful to me. I take back my power from The Media or Them or whatever you want to call that huge and complicated structure.

I watched a favorite TV show I haven’t seen in months. I haven’t watched “regular TV for a long time, and was astonished at the commercials and how I felt listening to them. They were telling me all sorts of horrible, scary stuff about me, and horrible scary solutions. It was eye-opening, I must say. You might wanna try it, if you watch TV, that is, noticing the messages TV gives you about yourself, your family, the world. Yikes.

Meanwhile, I would rather count my miracles.

How have I changed from feeling stuck in my problems to celebrating my success?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2014 all rights reserved 05162014