Color Your Life Happy

It’s inevitable that as we get older we will attend more funerals.  There’s nothing like watching our friends and age-mates succumb to illnesses or die of natural causes to remind us of our own mortality.

 One of my friends uses these funerals to remind her to keep busy enjoying her life.

She says, “Everytime I return from a funeral I book another cruise.”
 
You may not long for cruises, but surely there’s something you’ve always wanted to do. If you don’t do it now, when are you going to get it done?
 
Maybe you’ve always wanted to pursue a certain hobby, or write your life story, climb a mountain, or travel by rail across the US or have fabulous dinner parties. The possibilities are endless.
 
I can already hear your objections: 

• I don’t have the money
• I don’t like traveling alone
• I don’t know anyone to go with me to the (fill in the blanks)
• I’m too old and can’t move around fast anymore
• I’m afraid to fly.
• I’m afraid to drive
• I don’t like public transportation. 

For just a moment pretend none of your objections exist. What would you love to do?

1. Make a list.
2. Since we’re imagining, make your list as long as you want.
3. Make your wishes as elaborate as you want.
4. Now, pick one of those wishes from your list and make a list under it of all the things you would have to do to have that wish come true.
    

I’ll give you an example of one that was on my list years ago: Travel to Europe. What did I need to do to make this happen?

• get a passport
• pick a country
• look up airfares
• look up organized tours going to that country
• check out prices of tours
• select a tour
• investigate my finances to see if I could comfortably afford trip
• talk to others who have been to get tips
   
  Now make a list for each of the items on this list identifying what you need to do to accomplish this goal. For example,

To get a passport I needed to find out

• where do you get passports
• price of  passports
• application process
• what else is involved

By the time you get to this third level list, you will see that there are a number of things you can do today or tomorrow.
 
For example, It costs only a few minutes of time to find out where to get passports. If you have access to a computer, you can find out all you need to know about passports or anything else in a short period of time.
 
If you don’t have access to a computer, your local library does. The librarian will be happy to help you find what you’re looking the information you need.
 
This is just the start, of course. But drilling your lists down and your objections will begin to evaporate.
 

Get busy, start on that first list. Then leave a comment here about how this is working for you.