Living Life Framework
5 Thinking principles and 3 Tools to accomplish it
This was totally unexpected.
Turning 40 ?
Why didn’t anyone warn me?
Well, now that I’m here, I might as well make the best of it.
I recognize the driving force behind my shock of this arbitrary age is the recognition of the approaching deadline of my life. This particular day is the marking of the daily passage of time. its no more or less meaningful than any other day. After all if we used a base 4 system I’d be 220 years old. And by the lunar calendar I turned 40 a while back.
In my role as a human being a mini-creator in the reality that we’ve been given as a gift we call life, I have the privilege to assign the **meaning** and the purpose of any given time. You might recognize this in your daily or weekly spiritual habits.
And so I have taken this moment and chosen to attempt to create new habits. I’ll lay out my framework here as a journal for myself and as a place to share with others who may find it useful for them. I’ve recognized that acting with a group of like minded individuals will get us all much futher ahead than the alternative.
So what is the framework? It begins with Ben Franklin’s schedule.
Create a Schedule
The idea is to have a schedule that reflects your priorities. The key aspects that I am looking to emulate from the great Ben Franklin are:
- Wake up early
- Plan your day
- Learn something new
- Work hard
- Stop Work
I’ve discovered that what not to do is just as important as what to do. Do not check your email and social networks all the time, and especially not the first thing in the morning. That’s when you have the most energy, the most willpower, and have an opportunity to command your own life.
Of course this requires that you get enough sleep.
The morning is a wonderful time to learn. More about that later.
Once you start work, make sure you are in control of when to stop. We are human beings, not machines. We operate best on a rhythm, not in constant motion.
Learning lengthens your life
Ever wonder why life seems to speed up as you age? Can you slow it down?
The approach I’m trying out is a dedication to ongoing learning. In the words of Warren Buffet:
“Read 500 pages like this every day…That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”
- Warren Buffett
I’m no where near 500 pages per day. My initial goal is 100 pages per day. But the critical step is in the measuring. After all, what you measure is what you will improve. And what you measure says a lot about who you are.
Tools of the Trade
The tools I am currently using:
Evernote
One notebook. Each day I start in evernote with a new note entitled Goals For the Day and I tag it as “daily notes”. Sometimes I prefer to use a lined steno pad and a thick felt pen. Maybe it makes me feel like I’m making a real mark when I do that. I wonder if my children will feel that way, or perhaps the keyboard will give them that same feeling. The beauty of evernote is that it lets me take a picture of the pages and search my own handwriting.
Airplane rides are really an excellent medium for thinking without distractions and some of my best thoughts were written down on a airline seat tray.
Way of Life
The best habit tracker iphone app that I’ve found. With its simple interface, whether you belive it takes 21 days or 66 days to create a habit, this app gives you a quick way to enter information and a beautiful interface to see your habits over time in a chart.
Reflect to Succeed
A schedule allows you to stop creating all the time and have a space to reflect. Nonstop creating ironically results in destruction. And we simply don’t have enough space in our working memory to keep more than seven items at a time. Its nature’s way of telling us to stop, to write and to reflect.
Personally, going back to my own writing to get back in touch with myself and my own stated goals allows me to reestablish my connection to meaning and purpose. I hope it does the same for you.