1. “Take care of yourself.”
Taking care of ourselves is where many of us fail. Do we manage our stress? Do we exercise for 30 minutes at least 3 days a week? Do we get annual physical examinations? Do we nurture healthy relationships with others? Do we forgive ourselves or let things gnaw away at us? Do we get enough sleep? Do we obtain professional mental health services when needed? Can we tell when they are needed? Do we refrain from activities that abuse us physically or mentally? Three suggestions: (1) Learn about and practice mindfulness. (2) Grow compassion, to include self-compassion. (3) Exercise, exercise, exercise.
2. “Stay focused on what’s important.”
Ramey focused here on keys to happiness: meaningful lives, healthy relationships, being grateful. I concur but this key also holds true on other levels. How do you know what is important for you? I am a fan of goal-setting. As I wrote in Decoding the Workplace: 50 Keys to Understanding the Behavior of People in Organizations, “setting goals at work and in life increases the odds of success.” Write goals for the important areas of your life, i.e., financial, personal growth, etc. Some may be short-term, within the year. Others, long-term, several years to make happen. Then at least once a year revisit those goals. Only you can truly determine what is important to you.
3. “Learn to be a better you.”
This is a life-long endeavor. There are really two parts here. The first is learning. Some of us can move through life and have many experiences but fail to learn from them. Learning is not something that just occurs in a classroom or training situation. Learning is a skill that embraces each day and mines it for self-improvements and new knowledge. Learning is an attitude and a behavior. Who are the most interesting people you know? It is likely those who continue to learn and grow.
The second part is goal-oriented – to become a better you. This assumes we want to become better people. What does a better you look like? My guess is there are large individual differences here depending on what one values. This is also affected by situational factors. Life sometimes intervenes and creates conditions where we must choose how to respond, conditions where being optimistic and positive become difficult. Lauren Hill, a first year student at my university, lost a battle with cancer but throughout she was a source of inspiration to millions throughout the world. Why? Because of the choices she made.
Take care of yourself, stay focused on what’s important, learn to be a better person – great advice from Greg Ramsey.
© John Ballard, PhD, 2015. All rights reserved.
Image, "Crosswords: Success or Failure" by Chris Potter at www.stockmonkeys.com.
Used with permission. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Decoding the Workplace: 50 Keys to Understanding People in Organizations
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