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Browse published articles attributed to Kenneth Lind, with full-archive search.
I googled “how can I improve my life” and got 216,000,000 results in one third of a second. Millions of different people worldwide are contributing advice. The problem is not finding advice but finding some that I can use. There must be help for people in my circumstances in there somewhere. If I can sift through 10,000 Google results per day I can get to them all in 80 years or so. Piece of cake.
My vision of happiness is not party style joy and excitement. Although that is fun it is not sustainable. Instead I see being comfortable and relaxed about myself, others, circumstances and progress. Movies, sports, TV programs and other entertainments are also fun briefly but lose something when overdone. An interest in and effort toward improving myself and my day to day life is a steady source of pleasure for the rest of my life. An activity I control that keeps on giving. Five specific things that support lasting happiness are:
Words that describe nonsense in the dictionary include pointless, meaningless, irritating, disrespectful, obnoxious. Nonsense is words or actions that others don’t understand. Doing or saying things that seem illogical. In my experience, nothing is really illogical. If it seems illogical I don’t know all the facts. We send and receive nonsense from childhood onward. We act and speak in puzzling ways accidentally or on purpose. We may or may not become aware of it. It can affect our lives temporarily but usually not permanently.
Heredity: The passing of physical characteristics like the color of hair or eyes from one generation to the next. Kids in the family also pick up parents habits causing others to feel they and their parents look alike and act alike. Regardless of heredity, habits or what others thought in your childhood you are not your mother or father. Each child is a combination of both plus ancestors on either side. There are enough variables in the conception process to guarantee you are different.
Are you gaining on success or falling behind? I have heard many times that businesses are either going up or down. Never staying the same. We lose customers every year for one reason or another. They die, retire, move away, their brother in law becomes a competitor, you irritate them somehow. If you don’t have an ongoing program to gain new customers you are shrinking.
When I was a kid my mother’s younger brother Sammy was a guy to look up to. A marine during world war II, a foreman in an auto plant after the war, a decent house in a nice neighborhood, wife, two kids. He was a big happy friendly guy who was fun to be with.
I've heard that said since I was a little boy. Usually when talking about some awful deed that was committed. Fraud? Theft? Robbery? Murder? It's all been done to get money and will be again. Many people believe the origin of the saying is religious. The Bible (Timothy 6:10) says something like the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil causing some to stray from the faith. That message doesn't say money itself is evil but that some of us value it above more important things. Sounds like things haven't changed much since then.
Around 100 AD an old Greek writer named Plutarch said the Spartans only ask where the enemies are, not how many. His description of the Spartan attitude was simple. We have a problem so we are going where it is and face it. We will see what to do and do it when we get there. I can find no better attitude. Whether the problem turns out to be too big to handle, not so bad, or just my imagination the first thing I need to do is get face to face with it. Realistic dimensions are needed before construction.
“Dad and mom think rock music is stupid, poke along under the speed limit, and I wouldn’t be caught dead in their clothing and hair styles.” Sound familiar? It’s what I thought in the teenage years while wearing my blue suede shoes with white socks, cuffed jeans and greased hair. In later years it was followed by “Where did these teenage clothing and hair styles come from? The boys are trying to look like girls and the girls like something in a horror movie. Their music is so loud I cover my ears.”
A life insurance agent once said to me “Ken, you are not immortal.” Picture a tall bird with his head in the sand. I was in my 30’s, with military, college and business experience plus a wife and kids. This was not new information. He made his point by starting with a truth that most of us avoid. He kept it friendly but serious. When he got my head out of the sand he sold a policy.
Computerized everything, rocket ships, cars produced on a copy machine. Hundreds of ways to terrorize and kill us. We have astonishing numbers of people making a whirlwind of discovery and invention on all fronts. We have specialists in fields we didn’t know existed just a few years ago and are considering travel to distant planets. Will we choose door one, survive and prosper or door two, wipe each other out? Here are a few details we should keep in mind.
Like most people my age I started smoking as a teenager. At first it was obvious that my body did not want that smoke in my lungs. The coughing, nausea, foul taste and eye irritation were worth putting up with in order to look grown up. Before long my body adjusted and the habit was formed.
Others have tried to mess with it by giving advice but are not to blame. I have listened to teachers and motivational speakers, read inspirational books and thousands of quotes written throughout history. The internet has exposed me to much more. Some of it good, some not. Once in a while over the years I have met, spoken with or traded emails with a top business executive, famous actor or athlete.
Because I know how much better life can be with a few adjustments. I have experienced it. I believe there are people who will greatly enjoy experiencing it too. I am not Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Sam Walton, the Dalai Lama, I am the guy next door and if I can do it, you can do it. You have to experience it to appreciate it and begin to enjoy it. Until then it is just an idea you might try some day if you have time. The truth is you have time today. You are just in the habit of filling it with something else.
I was the first child of two people with negative blood types. Doctors didn’t know how to handle that yet and as expected only the first child survived. My younger brother and sister didn’t live long enough to make it home from the hospital. Lesson: I am alive by dumb luck, not superiority.