How to Live With No Regrets

The last thing that we want is to look back over our lives and regret the way that we lived our lives. Bucket lists have become very popular. There are many things that we all would love to do and places that we would like to see, but there never seems to be enough time or money. However, our lives are much more than a collection of experiences. A recent Hospice report lists the five most common regrets from people who are dying.

They are:

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

We are told to dream big, set goals, and succeed in life and many of us (especially males) are driven to do this. What is not always realized-and what the dying know-is that we often lose sight of what is really important and exchange what we aspire to for what is expected.

2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.

This is one of the most common regrets among men hospice patients. I am sure that these individuals would not suggest that working hard is not important, but my interpretation of this is that we need to balance our work with other important aspects of life. Men too often sacrifice spending time with their family for the sake of work. Let us not make this mistake.

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

As I contemplate this regret, I am mindful of all of the people that have touched my life that probably don't know what they mean to me.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

The popularity of social media has made contacting friends and acquaintances from the past much easier; do not neglect this mean of staying in touch

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

I realized some time ago that happiness is a choice. Do not make the mistake of NOT choosing to be happy.

What is NOT listed is as revealing as what IS listed. Notice that specific places and experience do not seem as important to people coming close to the end of their lives.

It is often said that hind-site is 20/20. Looking back is always easier and clearer than looking forward and we cannot change our past, but we can influence our future.

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Empower Your Life by Thinking!

Mom, "I can't stop thinking!"

The walls of my boyhood home must have been very thin. I remember one restless night trying to go to sleep. Mom detected my restlessness and said with a loud voice from her adjoining bedroom, "Jimmy, go to sleep!" My reply was something like, "I can't get to sleep, I can't stop thinking!"

Let's try an experiment. For the next 60 seconds try not to think about anything.

Times up....

Pretty hard isn't it? Have you ever wondered why you think about the things you think about? I have (maybe I have too much time to think). I am sure that some researcher somewhere has received  grant money for research into thinking patterns and why we think about what we think about. I am more interested in what the Bible says about our thinking. A Bible study into "thoughts" and "thinking" gets quite involved. Ultimately we learn that our thoughts come out of the state of our hearts (Mark 7:20-22 for example). Instead of jumping into that whole study, I just want to stress three points regarding our thoughts.

1. What we think about matters.

There are many scriptures that indicate that our thoughts matter to God. For example, "The Lord detests the thoughts of the wicked, but gracious words are pure in his sight" (Proverbs 15:26). Ultimately, thoughts merely reflect what is in our hearts, but we know that God changes hearts every day (Romans 12:1-2). This leads to our second point.

2. We have the ability to control our thoughts.

Although we do not always exercise the power to control our thoughts, we have been given this ability. People are guilty of thinking habitually--that is we tend to fall into patterns of thinking. This is often because of our environment. The computer programming phrase comes to mind--garbage in, garbage out. This applies to virtually every area of life and is the reason for Paul's admonition:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatsoever is true, whatsoever is noble, whatsoever is pure, whatsoever is lovely, whatsoever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." Philippians 4:8

3. We can determine many outcomes in our lives by controlling our thinking.

Think about the power of this statement!

This statement is true.

If we think about positive, Godly things, then we will have more Godly positive outcomes in our lives.

The opposite is also true.

If we think about negative, worldly things, then we will have more negative ungodly outcomes in our lives.

This is true for the Christian and for the non-Christian! This is a natural law that applies to all mankind. There are many laws that apply to mankind--give and it will be given to you, love and you will be loved, tithing (there is a blessing for all who give a 10th to God, I know several non-Christians that feel strongly about tithing). Thoughts have a resonance or frequency that can be heard by God and I believe can be detected by others. I would rather my life resonates positive, Godly, up-lifting "vibrations" than ungodly, faith-killing, fleshly "vibs".

Git R Done

"Git R Done" is a saying made famous by Larry the Cable Guy (whose name is not actually Larry and who is not actually a cable guy). It is the redneck version of the Nike add "Just Do it." Whether you subscribe to the southern version or the Fortune 500 version, we all need to do something. Every organizations values those employees that get things done. People who can get jobs done well, timely, and on budget get promoted to higher positions. Here are six quick pointers that have helped me. If it was not for these six things, I would have never finished many projects.

1. Prioritize the things you need to do.

Every task has a level of urgency and importance. There are four possible combinations. Understanding this will help us to prioritize the things we must get done.

• Not important, not urgent
• Not important, urgent
• Important, not urgent
• Important, urgent

2. Just start...do not procrastinate. Sometimes the best thing to do is to just get started.

3. Learn the art of self-motivation. Do not wait for your boss to motivate you into action; you may not like how it is done. If you are self-employed or do not have direct supervision, the ability to motivate yourself is a must. Give yourself rewards for accomplishing tasks. When facing decisions about what you need to do, ask yourself what will give you the greatest sense of satisfaction or relief when it is done--then do it.

4. Focus on what you are doing and stay on task. Plan ahead to eliminate known distractions.

5. Don't be afraid to ask for help. It is better to finish well with a little help than it is to not finish on you own.

6. Be accountable. Individuals that can work well without someone to be accountable to are rare.

There are more elements that help us get things done, but these six have helped me finish many projects.

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