How Long Do You Plan to Go?
With our first breath, our parents began making plans for our future. Plans to have fun watching us grow and learn.
Have you grown and learned as much as your parents had hoped?
Our bodies grow as we approach adulthood. And our health will depend on our access to quality food and purposeful exercise.
I hope your parents took good care of you and that you learned to take good care of yourself. That is important to keep in perspective. Even if they had bad habits with food choices and activity choices, you can always do better.
This is your life. Make the most of it. With good habits and attention to details, you could manage to live a long time. Be positive. The big question is, “How long do you plan to go?”
Good Health Will Help
Exercise will build strength and endurance. Endurance will serve you well during hard times.
Some hard times, financially, will require you to work extra and go on less rest.
Learn to Endure
Be consistent. Have a plan. Study what you need to know to help you grow your strength and endurance.
Getting in good physical condition will make it easier to get back in shape after a time of inactivity.
With a conscious effort to stay healthy, making it a priority, you will have an important tool for building wealth.
How Does That Relate to Money?
Remember the old saying, “A healthy mind needs a healthy body”? This is simple wisdom.
Your philosophy about work and money will both affect and be affected by your health.
By setting up controls, mentally, for your health habits as well as your spending habits, you can increase your chances for a better and longer life.
Build Your Platform
It takes time, energy, and extra effort to get the education you need for earning potential. That is where strength and endurance come into play. Maybe you were never a star athlete, but being a consistent walker, jogger, biker, or swimmer will put you on that level of durability over time.
Your working career could span up to fifty years. Take care of yourself and you will be healthy enough to enjoy your retirement.
Pay attention to what you enjoy and what fits your personality, and you can build a satisfying life. Looking inward, reflecting on what you find rewarding and enjoyable, will help you set some goals to help you determine what kind of work will make that part of your financial life more acceptable mentally, physically, and spiritually.
Setting goals is the best way to build plans for your future. Those plans will be the platform from which you can see far into your future.
Success Is Planned
Wealth grows out of plans being fulfilled, rough times endured, and good relationships made along the way.
What is your plan? Yes it takes a little time to think things out; but, having a sense for what you might want to do, to accomplish, to learn, or to earn will help your daily sense of purpose.
Every day will be more productive and have more direction as you make plans with your goals in mind.
You Define Wealth
Wealth is a loosely used term, usually connected to financial status. However, wealth can also relate to knowledge, understanding, and personal relationships.
To clarify, having knowledge and understanding how to use knowledge are two very different things.
In some respects, wealth is a feeling, a sense of security. There are many people who have lots of money but never seem to have enough. They never feel wealthy. They are still insecure and often lose sight of the simple things, like close relationships, that could make them feel satisfied with their place in life.
How will you define your wealth? It would be well for you to define that before you get too far into an activity that could limit your time to enjoy your life outside of that activity.
Old Age Lessons Learned
I, personally, belong to that select group of people born right after World War II, called the “Boomers”. There were a lot of us! And, as we grew, things changed a lot.
Some of us managed life rather well but many of us made a LOT of mistakes along the way. Hopefully, you will read enough to learn to avoid many of those mistakes.
Here are a few things to consider reading about:
- Technology changes happen whether you want them or not. Those changes will affect your work life, the way you have to do things, the way you have to communicate. So, pay attention! Make the needed changes to be able to avoid disruptions in your life.
- Marriage, as an “institution”, has changed. It used to be a religious commitment. Now, it is as easy to get out of as it is to get into. So, make sure of your relationship before you commit. Your finances will be greatly affected by the philosophy of your partner about money. Qualify who you want to share your life with and delay your choice as long as you can. Common beliefs about money will be a blessing over time. The same can be said about how they will react to difficulties in life. Try to see them in a variety of situations and note how they react and especially deal with problems.
- Retirement has its own challenges. If you had been diligent to stay healthy, the challenges are easier to handle. If you had allowed bad habits to get in the way of healthy choices, they will create difficulties that will be hard to get through. It is harder to get around with a walker, a wheelchair, or an oxygen machine.
These are just a few. Many years of living will give you many more challenges to consider, unless you try to learn how to avoid them before they “happen” to you.
Are You Ready to Make Changes?
Ready or not life happens! Are you ready to make changes to work with changes around you to make progress over time?
Your future will reflect your willingness to learn and pay attention to what you need to do differently.
Work Your Health Plan
I want you to have a good perspective on the importance of good health. And I want you to realize that it does not just happen. You have to study to know what good food is, rather than take the word of a company trying to profit from your purchase of their products.
Realize, also, that we get stronger from resistance. Exercise is work. Sure, it is not easy to make the effort to get stronger and have more endurance, but it is well worth it! Make the time and you will be able to have and use more time when you reach retirement.
So, I ask again, “How long do you plan to go for good health?”