My Life Philosophies

Recently, I heard the classic song "Imagine" by John Lennon and I thought to myself, "If there was a song that described my life philosophy, this would be it."

Over the past couple of years I have been called upon to simply . . .

listen to people.  

And in doing so, I've learned a great deal about my own personal philosophies--nothing too deep, nothing innovative, but they work for me.

For example, when it comes to work, it seems healthiest to take it easy.  I don't mean be a slacker.  I mean, leave work at work.  It will be there tomorrow.  Don't work so hard.  In the words of a one Mr. Tyler Durden, "You are not your job".  I cannot stress the importance of this statement enough.  Try to do something you love.  If you can't do exactly what you love, TRY to find things about your job that you can love.  Usually, and also quite ironically, this means loving the people you see on a daily basis for their sense of humor--it is important to smile at work;  their stubbornness--because it teaches you patience; their wisdom---it's yours for the taking; and even their meanness--it forces you to choose to counteract their negativity with kindness.  I've also found, now that I am managing people, that generally employees want to come to work and do a good job--give them a chance to show you they can instead of assuming they won't.

 Imagine all the people
 Living for today...

Now, onto that nagging little bugger called WORRY.  Right now I am going to get foofy and new age-y on you:  Mindful meditation WORKS.  What is mindful meditation, you ask?  Mindful meditation is the act of living your life in the present moment.  It's all about focusing your energy in today, here, now--not what happened in the past, or what could happen in the future.  It's a big part of yoga too--if you're into that sorta thing.  I read somewhere that 90% of what we worry about never happens in the first place, and the other 10% . . . well, you couldn't have done anything about that stuff anyway.  Be.  Here.  Now.  My.  Lovelies.

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can

Moving my life two states and nearly eight hours away recently, really got me thinking about possessions.  Sometimes I think it would be cool to by a gypsy (and not the "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" kind either--much, much more like the Johnny Depp, "Chocolate" kind--oh, yes please!).  Anyway, I really realized just how much crap I had.  It was silly.  I drove to Montana in 2000 with a Honda full of stuff and left in 2011 with a flatbed trailer and my Chevy totally full.  I got rid of so much stuff which was liberating, but I could still probably do without half the crap I kept . . . I am envious of those who can pick up and leave at a moment's notice (even if society may think that is strange--or simply call it retirement with an RV). 

Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too

I am not a religious person.  You will never, ever hear me say "my god wouldn't condone that behavior" or "my god is an awesome god".  Ownership of god is akin to owning the sky.  I think God looks down on religion at times and just shakes his head and says, "that's so NOT what I meant".  I am an incredibly spiritual person and there are simply some things that are unquestionable in my book:  you get what you give, if you come from a place of negativity, greed, anger, revenge, hurt, etc., you are just going to attract this back into your life, pray often, give thanks everyday, live fearlessly, drink rum (but not too much OK?), laugh, smell the flowers whenever you can, drink good ass tea, and BE LOVE BABY.  BE LOVE.

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one

Love,
Nik