3263: [Part 1] How to Make This Season the Best Season of Your Life by Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 3263 How to Make This Season the Best Season of Your Life Part 1 by Joshua Becker of BecomingMinimalist.com and I'm Justin Malik. Happy Friday! Welcome to one of the only podcasts in the world where

[00:00:17] articles are narrated to you for free with permission from the authors. It's an award-winning podcast thanks to you. Today I have a bit of a longer post so I'll read the first half

[00:00:26] today and then finish the rest for you tomorrow. So with that let's get right to it and start optimizing your life. How to Make This Season the Best Season of Your Life Part 1 by Joshua Becker

[00:00:43] of BecomingMinimalist.com Our lives are a progression of seasons. Some seasons of life are long. Elementary school, parenting young children, grandparenting or caring for a spouse as they near the end of life. Other seasons of life may be

[00:01:02] short. Life change can happen in the blink of an eye. Regardless of their length or how a particular change in season came about, as Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote, quote, every age is an undiscovered country end quote. Each season brings unique joys and challenges.

[00:01:23] Many people have been asked, what is the best season of life? And the answers vary. Some loved their college years or when their children were young or when their children left the house or when they retired. When I consider the many varied answers to the same question,

[00:01:41] I'm reminded that there's a unique joy to be found in every season of life. Every season holds potential and opportunity and adventure. And every season contains the potential to be the one we enjoy the most. It is up to each individual to choose. Why not this one?

[00:02:03] There's a present joy in our current season and there's no reason it cannot be the most enjoyable one. But how do we accomplish that? Here's how we make this season of life our best season. Number one, accept the change in culture happening around you.

[00:02:20] The only constant in life is change as the seasons of our life change so does culture and it's always helpful to make the best use of those changes. If we continually long for the

[00:02:33] old days when we used to be able to blank or the world was more blank or young people didn't blank, we'll never experience the joy of the present moment. When I was younger I had dinner

[00:02:46] with a successful real estate agent easily in his 60s maybe even older. He made a passing reference to a social media site and something he had seen while on it. Wait I responded you're on that social media platform? Oh yes he said I tried to stay current

[00:03:04] and educated on all the new advancements in social media. I made a decision that day that I would work to be the same type of person when I got older. I don't want to become the

[00:03:16] old man who constantly complains about the state of the world. I'd much rather be the old man who understands the world and sees the benefits of it and possibly the drawbacks. Certainly as

[00:03:28] a parent of teenagers it is wise for me to know the current iterations of social media and so unfamiliar with all of them. Given the option of staying current with the changes in

[00:03:39] the world or being left behind I'll choose staying current every time. Number two recognize the change happening inside you. As the seasons of our life change there are more changes happening than just the world around us there are also changes happening inside of us. Our bodies change,

[00:04:00] our worldviews change, our wisdom grows hopefully and our abilities increase or decrease. Sometimes we're growing in our abilities and skills and sometimes they're being taken from us. Recognizing those changes accepting that they are occurring and adjusting our lives because of them

[00:04:20] are essential to fully enjoying our present life. As we enter later seasons of life we lose physical abilities but we have certainly gained experience and of course people develop at different times and learn to overcome obstacles at different points but the longer we live

[00:04:39] the more we have learned and overcome. When we're in younger seasons of life what we lack and experience we're often able to make up for with energy, passion and drive to succeed.

[00:04:53] Our minds are also less made up and we're more open to new ideas. Change happens around us but also inside us. The more we recognize and accept the changes taking place in our bodies the more likely we are to make the most of the current season. Number three

[00:05:12] do not be defined by past mistakes. Sometimes the mistakes that mark our past are the result of our own foolish choices but sometimes they are the result of someone else committing harm to us. Either way allowing mistakes in the past to negatively define your present is a mindset

[00:05:31] that must be overcome. If the mistakes of your past are your own doing remember that you cannot change those decisions they've been made and the harm cannot be undone but you can redeem

[00:05:44] the past by learning from it. The past can become your servant if you learn life lessons from it that make you a better person in the future. If the mistakes in your past are from the doing of

[00:05:56] somebody else I'm sorry that happened people can be cruel but that person does not need to harm your present as well. I don't know what it means for you to turn that harm into good

[00:06:08] but it usually contains leveraging your pain to help others. I have a friend who is reluctantly drawn into divorce by a spouse who could not overcome PTSD. She could have become bitter and angry but she did not quite the opposite in fact she currently volunteers assisting people with

[00:06:28] PTSD to repair their lives rather than allowing her pain to negatively affect her today she has turned it around for good and is making the most of her current season in life even if it is one

[00:06:42] she would not have chosen for herself. Number four hear that on tomorrow's episode you just listened to part one of the post titled how to make this season the best season of your life by Joshua

[00:06:59] Becker of becomingminimalist.com and I'll be right back with my commentary thank you to Joshua there's a nice reminder in there he said as we enter later seasons of life we lose physical abilities but have certainly gained experience and of course people develop at different times and

[00:07:18] learn to overcome obstacles at different points but the longer we live the more we have learned and overcome. I think that one's important to remember because when he mentioned number two which was recognize the change happening inside of you it's easy to be

[00:07:33] upset about changes that happen to our bodies due to getting older and ignore the positive in our culture it's normal to fight old age seems like everything is about anti-aging these days we don't hear enough about the positives so it's easy to forget about the wisdom and

[00:07:52] experience gained as we get older some other cultures seem to respect elders much more so shame it feels like they're taken for granted over here at least it feels that way in my experience

[00:08:05] but we're just halfway through the article for now so with that stick around for tomorrow's show thank you for being here and listening every day and I'll see you tomorrow for part two where your optimal life awaits