Week 49

Secret #97
Have a purpose.


"Without a purpose nothing matters. You can work forty hours a week, come home to cook, clean, and then take up seventy-two new good habits, but if there isn't a reason you are doing it, none of these activities will mean anything to you."


I like how the book uses taking a test in school as an example. Why should you study for that test? Because you want to pass the class. And you want to pass the class so you can get a degree and you want to get a degree so you can get a job. But if you don't think about the purpose of all this then there is no point to study for that test. And that job is probably a long ways off, but it's the purpose that you need to keep focused on.

"In research on college students, a comparison was made between students who enjoyed their lives and studies and students who were least comfortable with their environment. A major difference between the two groups was a sense of underlying purpose in life, which almost twice as many of the former group had."


Secret #98
You have not finished the best part of your life.


"We hear that youth is wasted on the young. People who say this are accepting the myth that only the young can enjoy life to the fullest. The truth is that older people do not consider their young days to be their best days; most enjoy their senior years more than any other part of their life."


I think that each part of our lives has so much to offer us. So many lessons to learn and things to enjoy. I enjoyed my childhood and look back on it with many wonderful memories. I am completely enjoying starting a family of my own and watching my own children grow and enjoy their childhood. I look forward to the time when they are grown and are starting their families. You are only as old as you feel. There are days that I do feel really old, but I try not to let it bring me down.

"Researchers conducted a long-term study of northern Californians, interviewing subjects multiple times over three decades. When asked when they had been the happiest in their lives, each time eight out of ten answered 'right now'."