Living the good life.
Who isn’t interested in that?
The problem is, living the good life as it’s been presented to us through the media over the years seems to be more and more out of reach with each passing day.
Headlines scream doom and gloom 24/7 and have been since I can remember.
Everything is changing and changing so fast.
What are we to do?
Today’s technology moves at Mach speed. Keeping up is practically impossible -- what’s here and “in” today is gone and “out” tomorrow.
e.g. iPhone 12. Vine. MySpace. Friendster. VHS. Pong.
Ha -- I’m dating myself with Pong.
With so much change happening so fast, it’s far too easy to tell ourselves, "Why bother?"
And some people will do that.
I say, rather than throw up our hands in surrender, it is better to learn skills that help us benefit from the way things are so that living the good life despite the ways things are isn't beyond our reach.
Skill 1: Leveraging Information
We no longer have the time or luxury to build up years of experience for living the good life the way our parents and grandparents did (who often worked at the same job with the same organization for their entire careers).
You know, the “Gold Watch” generation.
These days, people who are actively participating in their own self-education, investing in personal development programs, hiring coaches, and practicing skills that move them forward are buying themselves gold watches.
One of those skills is leveraging information as a means of remaining relevant in whatever it is we do.
The good news here is, leveraging information is easy. Everything and anything we could possibly ever want to know about anything and everything is one Google search away.
Seriously, how cool is that?
Want to learn how to build a treehouse? Change a tire? Find the best off-the-beaten-path restaurants in Mexico that don’t leave you with Montezuma's revenge the next day?
It’s all right there for the taking.
Reading this blog counts as leveraging information.
Listening to my podcast where I have in-depth, impactful conversations with leaders from all sorts of industries counts as leveraging information.
When we learn the skill of leveraging information -- gleaning key insights about a topic -- and then applying what we learned to our respective circumstances, things get exciting.
We can move mountains.
Skill 2: Appreciating Chaos
Another skill worth learning is what I call chaos appreciation.
None of us took a class in chaos appreciation—chaos theory, perhaps—but not chaos appreciation.
We are living in a constant state of chaos today.
That’s a fact.
Learning to appreciate and understand chaos gives us agency to rise above the clutter, debris, noise, and nonsense. Living the good life as we define it becomes possible, and fast (side note --we must each define the good life for ourselves—not mirror what we see on the socials just because we saw it on the socials).
Knowing what we want and why we want it makes a huge difference in experiencing the good life.
Don’t believe me?
Think back to a time in your life when you felt stuck, adrift, or aimless. Maybe right after graduating college or after you’d been working at a “real job” for a few years.
You felt as if your boat had no rudder. The wind wasn't blowing in your sails.
You might be feeling like a rudderless boat right now.
A lot of people do in our post-pandemic world.
According to this article by Joseph Martin as reported on LinkedIn:
[Research results from the poll show] people have lost control over their futures (43%), personal lives (46%), careers (41%), and relationships (39%).
Many reported feeling trapped—the poll also indicated that 76% of respondents feel stuck in their personal lives, 31% are apprehensive about their futures, 27% are locked in the same routines, and they are lonelier than ever before (26%).
It’s not a good feeling.
And those stats are discouraging.
Which is why I’ve been advocating for one particular skill for a long time — the third skill in this post about skills for living the good life when chaos and uncertainty rule the roost.
Skill 3: Self-awareness = A Key to Living the Good Life
This third skill I'm talking about for living the good life is self-awareness, aka self-leadership.
We are all better off in the chaos when we intentionally learn and practice self-awareness.
Self-awareness gives us purpose, mission, vision, and a clear direction. It not only puts a rudder on our boat, but wind in our sails. And when the wind isn’t blowing, we know how to leverage other means of moving forward. Or, as the case may be in some instances, we know how to enjoy the quieter moments to take in the view when the wind isn't blowing.
Over the last fifteen years, I’ve developed through both the spoken and written word loads of resources to guide people on developing this important skill for living the good life.
The latest tool in my arsenal is my book, The Far Unlit Unknown. You can click here to learn more about this important resource for your personal development practice.
Life doesn’t have to feel out of control. Chaos can be harnessed for success and for living the good life through the skills of appreciating chaos for what it is, leveraging information, and refining self-awareness.
If you’d like help developing any or all of these skills, get in touch with me here. Happy to be of service to you on your journey to living the good life.
