073: Make Sure You Cover Your Axis

How often do you think about what your life revolves around?

Or to put it another way: what's the axis of your life - especially as you age?

Life evolves but it also revolves.

You might often hear a birthday referred to as "another trip around the sun."

That's the revolution-ary aspect of your life as you live on this ever-revolving planet.

There's a scientific reality of the earth's consistent revolutions around the sun but there's also a personal reality that comes into play on a daily basis...and that shapes your mindset as you age.

This is important because (depending on what your personal world revolves around) the axis of your life can be tilted in unproductive and potentially detrimental directions.

The barrage of mainstream news and social media, time-drains, other people's opinions (OPO), and/or your own personal setbacks due to health or finances can cause a disruptive spin-cycle in your life.

Rethinking and renewing what your life revolves around has the potential to become an axis that empowers you in your quest to age successfully

It could be time to shift the axis of your life and confirm that it's revolving around what engages your best energy instead of creating unfulfilling drag.

Perhaps you could benefit from:

• An axis of hope
• An axis of peace
• An axis of opportunity

Find hope without overconsumption or overstimulation

Often what you consume too much of begins to weigh you down and move you off-center physically, emotionally, or mentally.

Your informational diet is among those areas of consumption it pays to consistently monitor.

For example, think of media and news consumption as you would the foods you consume.

Am I right, that a brownie or bowl of ice-cream is a pleasurable indulgence?

But make them a dietary routine throughout your day...everyday...following every meal and you're not setting yourself up for good, longterm health.

Likewise, trusted, conspiracy-free media is useful in managed sound-bytes but gorge yourself at the trough of relentless, negative, fear-mongering newsfeeds and you'll damage your emotional and mental health.

Aging is challenging enough without the sky-is-falling rhetoric common with mainstream news and social media opinions.

• Be informed and stay informed but with measured consumption.
• Be aware of your emotional state and when you feel bloated from too much media consumption step away from the table.

Hope is reliable axis when you monitor the inputs you allow into your physical and emotional environment.

Experience peace without overthinking or overdoing

Subtle or chronic overthinking and an overdone cycle of busyness have the potential to disrupt the peace you seek in your life.

Granted, if you're in your retirement era you might feel less inclined to overdo it on the activity side but perhaps overthinking stands ready to fill the gap.

I wouldn't consider myself a chronic over-thinker, yet certain decisions - like a purchase, selecting a service provider, or narrowing my choices to the very best option - send my overthinking tendencies shift into overdrive.

A peace filled life is rarely (if ever) experienced in the frenzy of overthinking or overdoing.

Instead, a productive pause gives you an adequate moment (or two) to weigh your options without becoming bogged down in overthought minutia.

Try a productive pause:

• The moment you feel your emotions going off-the-rails.
• When you feel forced to decide rather than allowing yourself the time to make the most informed decision.
• If you lack the physical or emotional energy to deal with the outcome of a decision now but could more likely do so later.

Peace is a reliable axis as you give yourself permission to push pause when necessary without a second thought.

Discover opportunity without unnecessary oversight

It's said that, "opportunity waits for no one."

That's true, unless you're accustomed to a required chain of approvals before you take the first step.

When you've been siloed in a corporate structure for however many years and now (if you're retired or nearing that point) you have freedom from the structure it's common to seek approval before you take action.

Oversight might have necessity in certain areas but when it comes to the pursuit of opportunity as you age it could be more fulfilling to be free-range.

Being untethered from oversight can be scary - especially if you're used to the established checks-and-balances of siloed opportunity (aka the "if-its-an-opportunity-we'll-tell-you environment common with corporate structure).

Oversight becomes more personal when you step out and begin to pursue new opportunities.

As I'm training for a half-marathon, the oversight relative to how and when I train is solely my own.

I look to no one but myself for approvals as I lace up my running shoes and head out the door to log my mileage.

• Ask "why not?" instead of asking permission when opportunity presents.
• Be curious rather than cautious and calculating when seeking new and different opportunities as you age.
• Break with tradition on occasion and do something that pushes your comfort-zone.

Opportunity is a reliable axis as you stop looking over your shoulder for the approval and validation that only you can provide yourself.

Whatever your life consistently revolves around either empowers you or limits you for successful aging

• Monitor your inputs on an axis of hope.
• Give yourself permission to push-pause on an axis of peace.
• Seek no one's approval but your own on an axis of opportunity.

Press on...

Eddie