Ok, the content for the What is the Point of Life? ebook is written from my side and I’m waiting on more people to contribute. I have a handful of promises and some friends have sent their paragraph or so to add to the book.

If you haven’t sent your opinion in – why not do it now while you have a few minutes?

Just send by email to: AimforAwesome [{at}] gmail –> com your answer to the question, “What is the point of life?”.

Answer it for yourself. Tell, in your own words what the point of life is for you – to enjoy the optimal life – what are you doing? What is your focus? What is the most worthy way to spend your life? What gives you the most happiness, or, just makes the most sense for you to focus your life on?

If you want you can use the categories I list on this page – which will be the chapters for the book. I’ll put your entry under whichever chapter that fits – or, create new ones if it doesn’t fit one.

When you contribute you can list your name, email, website link, or other contact information. You will receive a free copy of the ebook too!

There is no time limit for when you send your entry – it’s an ebook, so I can add entries to it at any point in time.

So, no excuses – just send it!

Update 5/28: What is the Point of Life? ebook is available now – click HERE!

1. Think iffertdenly.

2. As soon as you catch yourself with even 1 procrastinating thought – smack yourself in the head and put yourself on the spot until you do something toward resolving it.

3. Nobody thinks like you do. 100% of what you think makes sense can’t possibly make sense to someone else. The onus of explanation, of understanding, of communication is on YOU.

4. Go for the big goals or go for the small ones – but always be GOING for something.

5. A move across town changes your view. A move across the country changes your job, friends, hobbies and gives you a new perspective on your country. A move across the world can change your personality, lifestyle, morality, religion (or lack of it), and worldview.

6. What if you made your biggest goal your smallest? What would your biggest goal look like then?

7. Exercise, meditation, and music clear your head. TV fills it with desires you think you should have… which later become real. That should scare the hell out of you.

8. When you’re eating… eat. When you’re walking… walk. Living in the moment, that is, fully experiencing what you’re doing in the present and not the past or future is the coolest experience. Enjoy it often.

9. Much of the world has no use for socks.

10. The internet and all the technology we have can help you become immensely successful. There are 9 year olds creating great software programs, websites, and businesses. Challenge yourself to learn whatever it is that’s stumping you at the moment. And then, do it again and again.

11. The point of life seems to be whatever you you think it is. Have you asked yourself the question?

Best of Life!

Vern

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

When I started meditating and got into it pretty well, I noticed that I became incapable of gossiping. I don’t know what happened, but meditation knocked it out of me. If I’m with someone that is gossiping I listen and change the subject. I don’t speak badly of someone except with them. I have a bad habit of telling the truth when someone asks. I figure – if they didn’t want to know they wouldn’t have asked. I don’t play the game where I sugar-coat things and make them feel ok about whatever it is I disagree with or that I see in them.

At times I drop bombs. I had a site called, “Mindbombs.com” for a while – I’ve since let it go… but the idea was that I liked dropping mindbombs (truths that hurt) at times when someone least expects it… The best time is when someone thinks they’re getting along with me well and we’re really having a meaningful experience – whatever that might be… and they ask me something and I truthfully respond. Jaws drop and it shakes them for a few days… Sometimes it rings them out and they don’t come back for anymore.

I have this idea that being truthful with someone about nearly all situations is what I can offer them that is something that few others will offer them. I can give them a gift by cracking their cranium just a little bit… enough to hurt but hopefully enough to give them a perspective that they haven’t heard about themselves.

I really liked number 2. “When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering. I like this one so much because this is the thing taht set me free in my mind at about age 16. I was talking to my Uncle John and he was telling me some life advice… he said something about me looking out for myself and that nobody is looking out for me more than me. Nobody. Nobody’s opinion matters more than mine because nobody else has my best interests at heart. Nobody. Just me. When I really realized the profundity of that idea it freed me of a lot of mental chains that were holding me back.

I don’t follow tradition. I don’t do things others do just because they’ve been done in the past. I question nearly everything about my life and what I’m doing so I’m not acting on tradition or according to what someone else believes I “should”. I really enjoy life in this way!

Number 3 is talking about what I like to call peoples “private logic”. In your own mind you make this reality that you think the rest of the world shares. You base actions, decisions, everything on this reality. Problems arise when your reality doesn’t match someone else’s reality. If you assume it does – you’ll find out – nobody on the planet shares your reality about everything. Definitely not about most things. Possibly not about anything.

Number 4 I have been thinking about a lot lately… doing my best at whatever I’m doing. Giving my best effort to whatever I’m doing. Slowing down and concentrating on whatever it is that I’m doing in every moment so I can put forth my best work. Its given me a great feeling lately to practice day to day life according to this idea.

What do you think of these four ideas to guide your morality… your day to day life?

Best of Life!

Vern
Living in Hawaii is another nice way to go through life…

This is my first attempt at video for the Aim for Awesome site. I know what I want, but I don’t know how to get there yet. I noticed in this first video I’m too mellow for the first part, I’d like to get more energized like around the 9:30 minute mark you’ll see that I’ve changed delivery quite a bit. I know how to fix that for the future – shoot a few takes first and get comfortable with talking to the camera.

Talking to a video camera is not an easy thing. It’s not easy to pretend it’s a friend you’re talking to at Barnes & Noble… but eventually it feels comfortable enough at some point and the video starts to work.

Questioning your religious beliefs is something I feel very strongly about. I went from Catholic to Christian to Buddhist to nothing and maybe swinging back around toward Buddhism at the present. But a basic form of Buddhism that pretty much consists of: Try it. If it works, use it. If it doesn’t work, toss it.

At some point the Buddha said:

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”

So many times I see people go through life playing the game of whatever religion they were indoctrinated into without questioning it.

They never ask themselves…  Where did it come from? Is it the perfect truth?

A serious effort, a no holds-barred questioning and critique of your religious beliefs is called for. It’s a must. Your religion is the ultimate guide for your life. The one that holds the keystone to your beliefs, thoughts, decisions, actions, how you treat others and yourself… your career… and the meaning you derive from life. Your religion better be up to the challenge. It better be PURE truth or it’s not good enough.

In this questioning your religion video I cover:

• My experience with religion and how I went about questioning and challenging my religious beliefs over the years.
• A shot of southern Thailand from almost 1000 feet up a limestone mountain as a storm comes in.
• What I consider the 3 levels of truth or knowledge.
• Why questioning your religion is so important!

Questioning Your Religion, Video 1 >

Best to right click the video and choose “Save target as…” if you’re using FireFox browser or “Save file as” if you’re using IE browser. This video file is .wmv and opens with WIndows Media Player, is about 12 minutes long and about 13Mb in size.

Enjoy it! Comments welcome. Feel free to criticize.  I aim to improve on this first video greatly!

Best of Life!

Vern

Why human beings need to involve themselves in games of strategy and adventure online, effectively playing games within a game I don’t understand.

What better game to play than the one you’re already playing – the game of life? Why sit in front of a computer and play Quake, SIM City or some other video game with limited choices, experiences and outcomes that you need to pay for with time, and mental effort that will lead you absolutely nowhere.  Playing such a game over the course of a couple hundred hours will give you a final screen that turns into a mediocre fireworks explosion or says simply, “Congratulations, you’ve conquered the game.  Don’t miss our next game, Quake II which will arrive in stores just before Christmas 20xx.”

Why do some people spend hundreds or even thousands of hours pitting themselves against fictional characters in a game with a meaningless outcome? The big picture is that there’s no real goal or good purpose to these games. They’re mind-candy designed to stimulate some basic human interest. In SIM City its creating functioning cities. In Quake its about exploring unknown places, conquering enemies and extreme violence that we couldn’t otherwise partake of in reality.

In 1995 I think it was, I became interested in adventure video games like Doom II and Duke Nukem. They were novel at the time. It was an amazing concept to be able to play people from across the USA in ‘death match’ tournaments.  It was glorious fun and I spent a couple hundred hours playing, sometimes all night until I had to drag myself away to attend graduate classes the next morning.

When I think of the couple hundred hours I wasted I can’t believe I took part in it.  Why did I play them?  What did I get as a result?

Maybe some relaxation in a schedule filled with school, work and relationships.

But hundreds of hours?  What if I’d meditated instead?  What if I’d written a book?  Learned something online that mattered?  What if I spent those couple hundred hours learning some programming languages that could have been applied toward the year 2000 scare? I knew guys making $150/ hour updating old code from 1998-2000.  What if I had tutored someone and saved up some money to buy a mountain bike and get a different type of fitness (I was running a lot at the time)?

What if I would have spent the time talking to friends?  Volunteering somewhere?  Starting a business?

There are thousands of choices in this, the most awesome game.  There are infinite choices available with infinite possible results. This is the real game. Real life – as real as it gets, and yet some people don’t want to play THIS game. They are afraid of this game. How sad is that?

This is the only REAL game worth playing. This is the only one that matters even a little bit. In the big, big picture this entire game of life might mean the outcome for our future for the next 30,000 millenia. Or it might mean nothing. Better to act like it means a lot, than the other way around since there is always this chance that this life is what all future experience will be based on. That’s a sobering thought.

Isn’t life on it’s own thrilling enough? The outcomes, the rewards are infinitely more compelling than reaching a screen that says, “Congratulations! You killed 78,667 fictional chunks of code designed to attack you weakly within a GUI 2-D interface.”

TV is the all-time greatest waste of time affecting more people in more cultures than computer games probably ever will. In a way, computer video games are even less purposeful than TV. That’s saying a hell of a lot. Computer games have less intrinsic value than TV.

I challenge you today to stop playing any kind of computer game or watching TV. These two meaningless time wasters are better replaced by… well, anything.

Instead do something like…

• Learn a new sport or create one.
• Take part in a sport or exercise you already love.
• Start a stretching program.
• Use the computer to research something you want to learn about.
• Learn meditation, the ultimate relaxation and stress reliever. Download my free meditation course e-book.
• Question your religion… there must be something bugging you about it – see what others are saying about it.
• Teach your child how to do something s/he is interested in – not that you’re interested in.
• Read one of my favorite books Children, the Challenge; Think on These Things; or No Religion, by Buddhadhassa Bhikku; Hannibal, Thomas Harris.
• Start writing a book!
• Get a RSS Reader from Google and subscribe to some interesting blogs with it. It’s an amazing time saver. What’s a RSS reader?
• Start researching how to position yourself for the Ultimate Job.
• Every time you want to play a video game or watch TV get out a sheet of paper and write 10 things you could be doing instead.

Choose one or two and do them!

Best of Life!

Vern

Thirty One Reasons to Smile Big Today!

1. Burger King strawberry milkshakes are still being made on another planet and imported.
2. You woke up hungry. And, there’s food available you just have to go get it.
3. You’re not doing hard-time in jail.
4. If you have been to jail you learned a lot about yourself and life and the good news is -
it’s behind you!
5. The world is still spinning causing the sun to rise in the east again today just like the last few million days.
6. You don’t have this problem…
7. TVs can still be turned off.
8. Gas isn’t so expensive that you sold your car. Yet. And bicycling to work. Yet.
9. Bush will be out of office in just a few months…
10. Air is still breathable.
11. Water is still drinkable.
12. You can choose to call in sick today if you want to go have fun.
13. You’ve probably got some kind of health insurance.
14. No matter which major grocery store you shop at, chances are they stock your favorite flavor of Haagen Dazs.
15. Starbucks anything.
16. My free 22-Day Meditation Course (without religion) e-book in pdf format.
17. UFO’s haven’t taken over the planet yet.
18. You’ve got at least one friend. :) (Hopefully more)
19. You’re smart enough to know coffee in a Styrofoam cup handed to you through the drive-thru was recently boiling.
20. There’s another post at AimforAwesome.com.
21. These comics. >
22. This video of Thai kids boxing blindfolded – very funny. >
23. You can choose to learn about any topic that exists today by surfing online.

24. A can of your favorite soda is still under $1.00.
25. You’ve got a child, a brother, a sister, a mom or a dad. Or a combination of these, and chances are – they love you.
26. Creative Commons at Flickr.com. (photos to use on your site for free!)
27. Time is still going at the same rate.  One second per second. If it speeds up – THEN you’ll know stress.
28. Two free Thai food cooking e-books by Joy at www.JoysThaiFood.com.
29. This article about the ultimate happiness >
30. Awesome Photos Index >
31. Inspirational Photos Index >

Best of Life!

Vern

Since I don’t have answers I’ll ask questions. What are life’s most important questions? There are many questions that we should contemplate during life because questions help guide us and put us on a path to doing something. After all, we should be doing something during life right? I don’t know – that’s one of the questions.

Life’s Most Important Questions to Ask Yourself:

Where did you come from? You could, realistically, spend the rest of your life on this one. It’s more esoteric and you’re likely not going to come up with a satisfactory answer. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask yourself the question anyway! Maybe you WILL come up with an answer that satisfies you.

Were there any special circumstances leading to your birth? I’m not talking about the sexual act itself, I mean along the lines of fate, providence, some plan, some reincarnation type reason for your birth taking place as it did with the parents you were born to.

Is there a point to life, and what is it? Meaning, is there something you need to attain – to reach, in order that life be realized to it’s fullest. Or, is life like a song – the point of life is that every second of everyday you’re living it and doing the best you can – or maybe just realizing it’s there. There’s no goal in a song – there’s no endpoint to be reached, nothing to be accomplished. The song itself is the goal. The enjoyment one feels while listening to a song is the point itself. Is life like that? Or, is life’s point to reach some goal?

What are the activities in life that are worth doing? We can pick any number – millions of things we could do each day, things we could focus on. We’ve got 16 hours to do something with. But what? What of them are “worth doing”? Are they all worth doing? Is life an experiment – we should try everything possible – rack up new experiences? Is life to be reduced to only a couple things worth doing – helping other people through it, and eating and drinking and trying to make the best of it? What role should sleep play? As big a role as possible? What about play? Fun? Joking? Laughing? Eating? Swearing? Physical fitness? Having sex? Thinking about life’s most important questions?

What’s next? If we had any idea what was next that would quickly define for each of us what life meant. Unfortunately, we don’t have any clue about what’s next. Some choose to believe books and what others told them. Some have religious experiences that makes it all clear to them. The majority of us – if we’re honest and face reality, though it’s tough to do so, don’t have a clue what comes next. That being the case we are left to ponder – what is the point of life. Could be anything since we don’t know what’s next – right? If nothing is next – just nothingness, then this life means nothing and the next step too – means nothing. If there is a stronger test of morality or goodness or something that comes next then this life might be seen as a testing ground, a practice for what’s next. If there is mayhem and orgies next then this world might be seen as something we should take seriously. If seriousness is next, then this life maybe should be dedicated to triviality.

Is anything out there smarter than ourselves? Is there someone to answer to after this life? During this life?

If life is ours – can we dictate what happens to it – the length of it? So many people believe suicide is completely wrong – but why? It’s our life. If we don’t see something worthwhile, if we don’t see some point – why continue it?

Who am I? Who, why, what am I? All these questions come out of the “who” am I question. Am I someone important? Am I a blip in the population of humans on the earth? Is anything I do of any real consequence in the world? Or, is it of any consequence later? If I do good now, is there some payback later? Is there some punishment for living a life full of choice one knows inside are foolish, selfish, and that harm others?

Am I more than a body with a guidance center (mind)? Am I more than the sum of my physical parts? Is there something not physical here? Something outside the 3-dimensions our body dwells in? Is sleep another dimension? Does it matter? Is there something inside each of us that continues after death? Does it matter? Is there a universal consciousness to which we all belong to and which we blend with after death? Can we access that now?

Is life a dream that we can only wake up from at death? Is death the beginning of a new dream? Is dreaming a peek at death?

So many questions once the mind starts looking at the basic, Who am I question.

Anymore questions you can think of that we should be asking ourselves?

Get a copy of my free ebook –

Grab your copy of this free ebook - CLICK IT! Wait for it to download - 1.5MB.

Best of Life!

It seems I spend a lot of time figuring out what Life IS to me. Today I thought of it as a simple equation. It could be looked at as nothing more than…

Life = Consciousness + Free Time + Action

A lot of things we do during a typical day, to me, don’t constitute “LIFE”. I don’t think many people would argue that biological living and living LIFE are different things. I don’t think many would argue that someone that spends their life stoned out of their minds, out of consciousness… and reality, is not really living Life. Life is comprised of the three things listed above. If you don’t have one of the pieces, you’re not experiencing “Life”.

Components defined…

Consciousness IS: I’m in control of what my mind is experiencing and I am awake. I can choose to think about anything and to explore it in-depth if I wish. I am not being ‘entertained’ with mind-candy from TV, radio or some other distraction that is pulling my consciousness away from reality.

Consciousness IS NOT:

• Sleep.
• Coma.
• Drunk state.
• Drugged state.
• On television, radio, computer games, mindless internet surfing or driving, reading a fiction book with ‘escape’ as a purpose, or meditating.

Free Time IS: Time that I am working for someone else or for myself. If I am working on a project for myself… if it is fun and I am learning something and it is not just for the purpose of working and making money, then I might call it free time.

Free Time IS NOT:

• Work time.

Action IS: Doing something proactively. Action is doing something I chose to do and that I’m actively doing. I am in control of my mind, meaning, consciousness must be there. I am doing something for myself or for others. I am producing action as a result of some decision that I’m acting on. I’m not laying on my bed watching Teletubbies, rain fall, or the walls turn colors.

Action, as it relates to Life might be:

• Talking to a friend. Writing a letter. Typing a story. Making a “To do” list.
• Looking up something on the internet that you want to know for some reason that will improve your Life.
• Biking, hiking, eating, or driving to go somewhere for some reason (exploring, or specific purpose).
• A hobby where you are creating something or actively engaged in something you want to learn about or become better at.

Action IS NOT:

• Doodling on paper.
• Random internet surfing with no purpose.
• Listening to the radio.

With those definitions of the sub-components in place, lets take a look at some of what Life IS and what Life ISN’T.

Life IS NOT:

• Working for me or for someone else. Working is not Life to me. It’s a necessary distraction from Life in most cases.
• Time spent drunk, incoherent, otherwise escaping consciousness.
• Time spent ‘on’ the drug, television. There is far too much stimulation going on, visual, auditory,
  emotional, logical, my mind is not my own when I’m on television. I’m not conscious. I’m in TV consciousness which is not my own. Similarly I lump listening to music, playing games on the computer, and random internet surfing as not being fully conscious.
• Sleeping. When you’re sleeping, you’re not conscious and not in control of your Life. I don’t count sleeping as free time. I’m not in “action” either.

Life to me IS:

• Running.
• Climbing a mountain.
• Brainstorming ideas.
• Helping someone out.
• Barbeque with family & friends.
• Exploring a new beach, hill, or part of town.
• Doing something I never did before just for the experience.
• Creating something: Photography, videography, web site content, book, podcast, or postcards home.
• Snake hunting.
• Learning about religions.
• Questioning everything that exists under the sun (and beyond).
• Doing something mildly dangerous for the rush.

Those were the things that came to mind…

“What is Life to YOU?”

Best of Life!

If you liked this article you may enjoy this popular post, “What is the POINT of Life?”

This is about your Life Dysfunctions. We all have them.

Most of us have problems that I call Life Dysfunctions. Some of these are permanent, they can’t be overcome. I’d like to think that the only ones that are of this nature are those that are genetic and physically unchangeable through therapy or medicine.

I would like to believe that any other Life Dysfunctions can be eliminated, curtailed… or changed in some way.

It’s a very difficult process to look at yourself and tell what your dysfunctions are. Why that is is anyone’s guess and there are many guesses about it. I just know it’s a very difficult thing, to look at myself and try to guess what my dysfunctions are.

First, lets go over some of the dysfunctions that exist. Let’s define what I’m talking about since you might call it a different term or phrase altogether.

A Life Dysfunction is something about you that is at odds with society or yourself and that is causing you some discontent. Maybe some anger. Maybe some sadness. Some problem. Simple enough, yes?

Life Dysfunctions can be:

• a genetic predisposition
• a habit
• a behavior or group of behaviors
• a personality trait
• persistent negative or dysfunctional thoughts
• a dysfunctional agenda (something you want to accomplish with your self or with others)

Life Dysfunctions cause problems in your life. If you never analyze what your L.D.’s are, then you’ll likely live a life that’s not quite “being all you can be”. Sure you’re not joining the ARMY, but still I have this idea that we’d all be happier if we were being all we could be instead of “being all that we are” without any effort.

I’m guessing that all of us have some LD’s that cause us some kind of problems. If you look at yourself and don’t come up with any then you must be living an incredibly fulfilling, peaceful, magical life and I want to hear from you. I want the recipe.

I started to examine my own LD’s by asking and answering this question…

What is causing me a problem right now and that is affecting me on a daily basis?

The first thing that came to mind is having Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). It has caused me trouble every day of my life actually. Well, as far as I can remember. I have an attention span that lasts only as long as my interest is being tweaked. When the interest dies, something must take it’s place. As I work on this blog post in “ScribeFire”, my blog editing software in this FireFox browser, I am not just working on this one post. I have 14 open blog posts for Aim for Awesome that are in various states of completion. It’s not because I like to plan ahead, this is just the state of my mind – always in flux and always creating a new idea that holds my attention for a little while. Until the next idea. I have 17 Blogger.com blogs. I have 3 WordPress blogs. I have 2 complete web sites. I have a book (bio) mostly written at 127,000 words though I may never finish because now it’s in the editing stage and I’m not eager to do that very often. I have a fiction book halfway complete at 42,000 words. I’m working on it daily but there’s no telling if I’ll really finish it and submit it for printing somewhere.

So, ADD has been a major obstacle in my life. I have come to accept this as my life. I used to be at odds with it but in the last couple years I’ve just realized, this is IT. Make the best of this. I don’t want to take any medication as I love being creative.

I am still at odds with society because it’s rare that I can come through with things that require constant attention and effort. I’ve given up working a 9-5 job because it’s completely at odds with my mind. At every job I’ve ever had I have worked on all of my other projects at the same time. It isn’t fair to the people that hired me. It’s not fair to me to subject myself to an environment where I can’t be me. Blogging seems to be the ideal outlet for me. I can write on any of thousands of different topics. If I tire of writing I can podcast. If I tire of that I can video blog (vlog). If I tire of that I can work on search engine optimization of my sites. If I become bored at that I can write a book…

Recently I was listening to a podcast by StevePavlina.com. I usually listen to his podcasts about 5 times before I’m happy that I ‘got’ all that he was talking about. He speaks fast and it seems to just flow off the top if his head. He’s hard to follow sometimes, but eventually I get it all. He was talking about aligning your creativity with the outlet that you use to express the creativity. Wow. It really hit me that blogging is a great outlet for my creativity, it’s a great match. If you want to hear that podcast, it’s really powerful.

Steve Pavlina’s Podcast 20: Creative Self Expression (MP3 format, 13.7Mb)

In the future I’ll tackle the other life dysfunctions as separate posts in this series…

Best of Life,

I wrote a post recently about the types of people that I meet and interact with when I’m trying to get an online venture going. I noticed that there are people that are set apart from the rest of us. They are people that are on TOP of the game, whatever particular game they’re playing. I wrote about the online world, but there are many other games people of the world are playing…

What about people that seem to be on top of the big game? You know, the “Game of Life“. Do you know anyone like that?

I know just a couple of people that seem to be at the top of the Game of Life… and you know what? Not all of them are wildly successful at business. What I mean by being on TOP of the game of life is this…

People on Top of the Game of Life:

Wake up nearly every single day in a happy mood. Unless there is a specific and terrible tragedy that occurred recently they are, without fail in a good mood every day they wake up. Seem to wake up earlier than the rest of us too.

Are optimistic about the future every single day. They realize that the future holds the key to continued happiness and being on top of the game. They realize that the future is changeable. The future depends entirely on the actions that one takes in the present. They know that and they love that idea because it gives them power, control over the future.

Are realistic. They understand that, according to probability – which NOBODY escapes, there are both positive and negative events that happen that are outside of one’s control. As much as we want to control EVERYTHING, we cannot. Some things are beyond that. One can choose to attribute these things to a higher power, or, like I do – as just probability. Accept reality and the Game of Life is that much easier.

Love to take action. They like to be doing something that is leading to more happiness, more optimism, more possibility in their lives.

Love to encourage and help others. They love to share something of themselves to help make others’ lives better in some way. It might be just with a certain group of people (family), or it may be that the person has the same attitude with everyone he or she meets. What a wonderful person THAT is, right? Have you met strangers that seemed like they wanted to help you – and you couldn’t understand why? I have. It’s scary, because initially I’m trying to figure out – what is this person’s agenda? And sometimes, there just isn’t one. Some people love to be helpful to everyone they meet. I like that kind of person myself!

Reduce daily stressors. Nothing has the power to bring someone down, bring your life to a lower level than when you face repeated (daily) stressors that don’t seem to end. People on top of the game will eliminate these stressors as quickly as possible, realizing that they are taking valuable time and effort to keep facing day after day. If you have this type of stressor, take steps to eliminate it immediately.

Take care of their bodies. They found a balance between eating what they want and exercising to keep the body in decent shape. They might eat whatever they want – and exercise often to keep their weight steady. Or, they might eat little and exercise little. They might work out on the weight machines at the gym 5 days per week or 1. They might ride a bicycle a couple times per week, walk, or jog. They have found the optimal state for them which allows them to feel good about their body and not have it be a concern that stresses them out day to day.

Take care of their minds. Our minds need a rest to function at maximum level. People who are at the Top of the Game of Life have found a balance between work and stressing themselves out. They allow the mind to recoup when it needs it. These times of relaxation might be some sport, walking, laying down with eyes closed, meditating, yoga, listening to music, or even watching television.

Don’t put much focus on money as providing the ultimate happiness. Maybe in most people’s lives there is a time period where money seems like the most important goal. It seems like, if we just sacrifice everything in pursuit of this goal we’ll find happiness in the end. It’s like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow idea. There probably is no pot of gold, and attempting to create one for yourself is going to take shovel fulls away from the other areas of your life… and the lives of those that are important to you.

Are typically over 50 years old. I’ve noticed this to be true. Rarely does someone in their 20′s or 30′s figure out the key to being on top of the Game of Life until they are in their 40′s or 50′s or older. Why is this? Something to do with having tried a lot and learned a lot more. By the time one gets older there is a life intelligence that kicks in. It’s kind of a reality check that puts things in the right perspective. At 50, if you’re the average male you’ll die in about 25 years. There’s not much time to keep getting it wrong. Naturally the mind has matured and put things in perspective at about this age. Is it possible to be on top of the game of life at 20? YES!

Are eager to share the secrets they’ve learned over their lifetimes. Just ask! When I think of how many times I had the chance to ask people on Top of the Game of Life what they thought about certain issues, or the most important things they’ve learned in their lives… and I didn’t… well, it makes me want all the more to do it now!

If you know someone that seems to have it all – not just money and financial success, but a real peace within themselves and a happiness that is present every single day…

wouldn’t it be cool to ask them…
“WHY are you on top of the Game of Life?“

Best of Life!