50 Observations for my 50th Birthday

Posted 02/13/17 in [Non-Nutrition Thoughts and Kudos] | Comments Off on 50 Observations for my 50th Birthday

A few years back, a piece by Regina Brett of Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer made the email forward circuit. You can read it right here. I was still 3 years away from the milestone marking the beginning of the second third of my life, but it got me thinking about things I have observed along the way from people who experience healthy abundance emotionally, physically, spiritually, and/or financially. So, I started making a list and added to it over the last three years. Here is the conglomeration of items I’ve noticed these people consistently do, and for years I have tried to take them into my own life as well. They are ordered merely as they came to me.

1. When treated unjustly, they take time to validate their own pain, offer the offender unsolicited forgiveness (either spoken or unspoken), and move on with their goals in life.
2. Their “inner circle” is comprised only of emotionally and spiritually healthy people.

3. When faced with an unhealthy relationship they must maintain due to business, marriage, or family placement, they draw healthy, extremely firm boundaries with the person and express those boundaries to them with no judgement. They continue to do this even when the lack of health in the other person causes this action to be misinterpreted as judgement, snobbery, lack of compassion/empathy, or prejudice.
4. They consistently give out way more than they receive back, and rarely let anyone know about it because their giving is a direct result of their spiritual health.
5. When people accuse them of wrongdoing on any level, they consult their inner circle for the possibility of how this might be true and then ask forgiveness as necessary.
6. They have created an inner circle of humble, fair-minded people. Some of the people disagree with them on important life stances, but this doesn’t keep them from liking and enjoying them.
7. When offended, they detach emotion from the issue and see both sides by asking themselves, “What if I was [person]? How would I see myself?”
8. They have discovered how to wholeheartedly disagree with a person and still respect them sincerely.
9. They are willing to be wrong.
10. They don’t read autobiographies of people who are still alive.
11. They practice non-automatic correlation, meaning they don’t say, “That person is a [insert political party, religion, whatever], therefore, they believe [a certain thing, usually derogatory].” Instead, they reserve their observations for when they have actually dialogued with the person and hear from them what they actually believe.
12. They spend time with God every single day, relating to Him as mightier than them, and yet still a benevolent Friend.
13. They floss their teeth regularly and make their bed when they get up.
14. They have traveled and interacted with many different cultures, within their own country and internationally.
15. They, intensely and hourly, actively serve their families.
16. When people who don’t know them personally misunderstand their motives, they don’t care. Not because of arrogance, but because they understand the feelings of strangers aren’t what should dictate their minute-by-minute living.

17. They know how to clean up after themselves, and do so whether they have hired help or not.
18. They intentionally don’t read or listen to the news, knowing if something notable, tragic, or historic happens, they will hear about it.
19. If they have children, the children are well-grounded, even if they have had some bumps along the way.
20. They take responsibility for their faults and failures, and move past them.
21. They are uniquely funny, and tend to laugh every day.
22. They have often faced one or more legitimate personal tragedies, but understand their destiny is ahead, not behind.
23. They are rarely sarcastic or snarky, and if so, it is for well-placed humor or to make a poignant statement. Mostly, they are encouraging in their speech.
24. They read at least one book per month.
25. They honor their parents, even if they were horrible.
26. They are highly confidential people; often they have met and rubbed shoulders with society’s famous or well-known, but they would never share this fact out of respect for the person.
27. If they are considered financially poor (by American standards), they do not have a spirit of poverty. As a result, they always have more than enough.
28. Their care and empathy for emotionally-, politically-, financially-, and/or spiritually-oppressed people involves actively pursuing what they can personally do to help, rather than demanding someone else help.
29. They are physically active every day.
30. They are almost robotic about maintaining their ideal weight range, citing excess adipose tissue causes metabolic disruption and lessens organ and tissue efficiency, so it is illogical to have a lot of it. It is a data-choice thing, with no condemnation of others’ life choices.
31. They don’t watch a lot of recreational TV or movies, and spend the time interacting with others and building relationship.
32. Undesirable circumstances or events which happen to them do not become a filter to view life through.
33. Their relationship filter tends to be, “Here is a fellow human being. Let me discover who they are.” In other words, they are looking at personhood first over race, financial status, religion, or whatever, and will generally credit this outlook to imitating how God sees people.
34. They are respectful and kind in their stewardship of animals and the earth.
35. They rarely swear, mostly because they find it uncreative.
36. They live their lives purposefully, knowing their critics’ opinions or being afraid won’t be a valid excuse on Judgement Day for not doing what they are called to do.

37. They innately sense emotional, physical, and spiritual health are interconnected and symbiotic, but the most efficient way to achieve health is to focus on spiritual health through the Bible.
38. They dream big and believe those dreams will come true, but understand all they have to do in the now is the next thing.
39. They understand there are very few overwhelming things in life a meaningful hug and encouraging word from someone they love and trust cannot cure, so they give and receive when necessary, but…
40. Being the hug and offering the encouraging word proactively wards off the likelihood of becoming overwhelmed themselves.
41. They have lived choosing Truth over emotion enough to wield it powerfully and efficiently, like a surgical scalpel rather than a baseball bat.
42. They regularly remind themselves we are all more interconnected than we could ever know, so we should probably treat each person like family.
43. Their usual day is working hard and playing hard, all while considering their relationships responsibilities as primary.
44. They respond in healthy, life-giving ways when in truly desperate situations, because they have already decided a battle is not a war, and wars are won with good choices during battles.
45. They show up, do the work of love, and fuel it with grace.
46. They simply do not overindulge in debate, food, alcohol, sex, lack of sleep, social media, exercise, hobbies, or work, and this discipline makes them appreciate the debate, food, sex, sleepless nights, social media, exercise, hobbies, and work more deeply.
47. They are not angry people.
48. People closest to them would describe them as content, over happy.
49. They generally practice a hard discipline outside an area of their easy expertise gifting, and their years of this devotion has created its own talent gifting.
50. They know they will be forgotten in 3 generations, and this knowledge spurs them to become the most thankful person they know.

Click here to see what products I represent to build your body’s health!