Thoughts on Improving the Quality of Your Life – The Dream List
My friend Linda and I are now in our late 60’s. As we age, we have realized that a lot of things are changing in our lives. We are not unique. Everyone goes through changes in their lives and they feel a need to explore ideas that can improve the quality of their lives and make them the best version of themselves.
We wanted to explore some of these ideas in this blog. Since we are now at the upper end of what is traditionally considered “Retirement Age” we want to focus on the population that is over 55 years old and might be transitioning to 55 plus communities, retirement communities, assisted living, memory care facilities, and nursing homes. As we advance in age and transition away from a traditional career, or family structure, the changes are really overwhelming.
Retirement, children leaving the nest, grandchildren entering our lives, moving out of the family home, different financial needs, aging bodies along with mental and health issues. There are a lot of changes and we can have a better quality of life if we find ways to actively improve all aspects of our life. Personally, I don’t think the ways that we use to improve the quality of our life as we get older are any different than the ways we have available to us when we are younger. We want to present ideas that work at all stages of life, but we feel that they become more important as we age, since the changes seem to come faster at this stage of life.
The Dream List
Linda and I were recently talking about some of the ideas that are discussed in a book called The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly. The basic idea that I get from the book is to set goals for your life by writing down specific things that you want to achieve. He calls these Dreams. This is a little bit like a Bucket List, but it seems more thoughtful and calculated. It breaks down The Dream List into the following categories that you then customize to your personal situation and desires.
1. Physical
2. Emotional
3. Intellectual
4. Spiritual
5. Psychological
6. Material
7. Professional
8. Financial
9. Creative
10. Adventure
11. Legacy
12. Character
In future blogs we will attempt to tackle each topic and try to come up with some ideas that someone might want to explore. Our goal is to stimulate our own thinking so that we can improve our own quality of life and push ourselves to become the best version of ourselves that we can be. Hopefully some of our thoughts can inspire others to push themselves to constantly improve the quality of their lives as well.
Our Dreams
I am more guilty than most people in becoming too comfortable in my daily routines and not proactively trying new things that can help me to interact with other people or help me to appreciate new activities that I have never explored. Every one of us has dreams. It is there that our passion for life is ignited. We should each ask ourselves what our dreams are and if we are living our dreams. It is a question worth considering and a question that we should take the time to ask others that are important to us. Many things worth pursuing don’t cost anything at all. We can certainly value the simple and intangible things in life.
Other People’s Dreams
We can take an interest in other people’s dreams too. Encourage them to clarify their dreams and to pursue them. Keep a journal and start writing down your dreams. Dream without limits. Date your dream book as you add dreams. Date them again as you achieve your dreams. When we start to live our own dreams we will then want to know the dreams of the people around us and we will want to help them to live those dreams. Life is about dreams. Something wonderful is about to happen.