Midlife Tune-Up

Once begun, a task is easy; half the work is done.
-- Horace, Epistles, circa 20-13 B.C.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
-- Goethe

The following are the six steps of the tune-up process Instead of changing sparks and plugs, it involves changing attitudes, outlook and behavior. The tune-up process can also be considered a period of renewal:

Renewing yourself
Renewing your passions
Renewing your commitment
Renewing your drive
Renewing your focus

Passion

Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.
-- Hegel

Passion is the fundamental seed of success and has been the basis of any significant achievement in my life. What are the things in your life that you are truly passionate about? What gets you up in the morning?  It is much easier and more enjoyable to pursue a path of passion. 

 

Purpose

If one advances confidently in the direction of their dreams and endeavors to lead a life
which they have imagined, they will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
-- Thoreau           

Your purpose is your reason for living. Once you find it, your life can literally explode. There is no better feeling than knowing in your heart that you are following your purpose and living the life you are meant to.

 

Power

God favors the bold and strong of heart.
-- Gen. Alexander Vandefrift

Empowering yourself is one of the most important ideas in self improvement. Power involves developing the unwavering confidence or belief in yourself, that you can in fact accomplish your purpose.

 

Planning

Who begins too much accomplishes little.
-- German proverb

We perform at our best with clear, defined goals. With its institutional structure of assignments and semesters, school imposes its own planning scheme to organize your time around. But life does not always provide a syllabus as well as graded and defined measures of progress. A critical discipline is to establish your own priorities and manage your own progress, instead of having it done for you. Remember to plan your work and then work your plan.

 

Perspective

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
--Shakespeare

Practically every self help book I have ever read extols the virtues of having a proper perspective or a good attitude. Their constant refrain of the virtues of a positive attitude often reminds me of the hit tune that contemporary radio stations feel obliged to run into the ground. However, there is a good reason for emphasizing a healthy and optimistic outlook, for it does dramatically affect your quality of life and your ability to deal with the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” 

 

Perseverance

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
--Calvin Coolidge

The final tune up step is perseverance. Nothing great was ever accomplished without overcoming tremendous obstacles and setbacks. Tragically, many people allow themselves to be deterred by various detours and bumps in the road, often when success is just around the corner.

In order that you live a balanced life, it is recommended that you are balanced in your approach to tune-up areas and include the following: 

Emotional
Financial
Career
Relationships (marriage)
Physical
Mental
Spiritual

Including these important areas within your tune up plan helps provide the essentials for a balanced life. Too often, hard driving business executives sacrifice their family and even their health in the sole pursuit of career and financial goals. But even the most distinguished career achievement at the expense of your health and family will end up as quite hollow in the long run. Balance replenishes your energy and restores a sense of perspective. Just as missing a tune up step can send you sprawling, neglecting an important area of your life can leave you unfulfilled and bitter in the end.

Emotional Tune Up    Emotional balance is essential for your overall well being and effectiveness. Recent research indicates that one's emotional intelligence or “emotional quotient” can have an even  greater impact on their success and happiness than their IQ or “intelligence quotient.” Maintaining emotional balance can be quite challenging in today's turbulent world. It can be very beneficial to understand and control your emotions. Achieving emotional balance can also be referred to as “getting a grip.”

Financial Tune Up Your financial status impacts not only your current lifestyle, but also determines how well or even whether you will enjoy your retirement years. Recent statistics indicate the disturbing trend that most of today's baby boomers are not saving enough to adequately fund their retirement. The good news for most boomers is that their is still time to accumulate a retirement provided that you are willing to sacrifice in the short run and commit to a sound savings and investing plan in the long run. Your goal is not only to become financially independent, but also financially bulletproof so that you are not dependent on your children, relatives or the government to fund your golden years.

Career Tune Up  Your career serves as not only the mechanism for supporting yourself, your family and funding your retirement, but in many ways helps to define your purpose in life. Since we spend most of our waking hours at work, it is essential to choose a career that you love and which offers the greatest chance to exercise your unique potential. Work will always be work, but if you do work, you'd just as soon be as happy as possible.

Relationship Tune Up But in your quest to succeed, don't allow career and financial goals to overshadow your relationship with the important people in your life.  Material success means very little if you don't have special people in your life to share it with, which includes your spouse, your children as well as other family members and close personal friends who add important meaning and enrichment to your life.

Health Tune Up Personal health is one area of life we take for granted until we lose it. The sad fact is that most serious medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and even cancer, are lifestyle related and can be prevented. Despite having the best health care available in the world, the  health of our population continues to deteriorate. Record numbers of people are now considered obese and neglect their bodies. Proper exercise and diet can provide enormous benefits to both the quality and quantity of your life. Not only can proper diet and exercise reduce stress and extend our lives, but they can provide a sorely needed break from our daily grind.

Mental Tune Up Another way to battle the aging process is to keep your mind sharp. Never lose your sense of intellectual curiosity.  There is always something new to learn or discover which helps to prevent you from stagnating. All successful people have a passion and a drive for learning. Also, flood your mind with uplifting and enriching thoughts. You do tend to become what you think about most.

Spiritual Tune Up A regular spiritual practice can greatly assist in centering you and maintaining clarity about those aspects of your life which are truly important. A good spiritual foundation empowers us to make better decisions, lead more effective lives as well as provide that often elusive sense of inner peace. Too often, we only turn to God when all else fails. Don't wait until you're at the end of your rope to reach out for the healing power of spirituality. Incorporate a regular spiritual practice into your day-to-day activities and watch your life become calmer, clearer and more focused.

As you examine each of the important areas of your life, draw an imaginary line in the ground between your old habits and thoughts and the new life you wish to lead. Don't let self defeating behaviors drag you backwards. Forget the past and don't become distracted by regret. View all your experiences as necessary for your progress and development. Learn from your mistakes, but don't dwell on them. The “if only” list can be endless and will consume us if we let it. If I have any regret at this point in my life, is that I spent too much precious time consumed in worry and distracted by regret. We are so prone to torment ourselves. If only I had pursued another career, saved more money, made better investments, or married someone else; then ......  Then what? Everything would be fine, or would it? Maybe, but then again maybe not. But as much as we'd sometimes like to, we can't go back and redo our life. By lamenting your past, you sabotage your future. So forget your mistakes and missed opportunities and concentrate on NOW. As the serenity prayer well advises us, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.” So “forget regret, or life is yours to miss.”