Recharge Your Life

The best reason for Recharging your Life comes from Oliver Wendell Holmes, one of our eminent Supreme Court Justices. He said “Most people go to their graves with their music still inside them.” When I first read this quote I actually got the shivers because it frightened me. I didn’t want to leave all my music inside. I felt that there were parts of me that I had suppressed, neglected, squelched, things that I still wanted to do but wasn’t doing. This sense of time being limited confronts all of us when we enter the second half of life. At this stage in life we have also settled into habits that keep us repeating the same patterns over and over. Yet I am sure that most people feel exactly as I did - We do want to unleash the music inside us.

How do we do that? In order to let the music within us to come forth we have to begin recharging ourselves. By recharging I mean learning to be fully engaged in our lives. On the outside my life looked like it was great yet on the inside I knew that there was more to me. I had read that the second half of life was the life stage where it was natural for the focus to go inward. And that was exactly where I found myself. You have probably known people who have not brought their music forward. They have lost the sparkle for life and often seem old before their time.

In order to recharge your life you have to OWN who you are. By that I mean start where you are in your assessment. Ask yourself: What do I want for myself? There is usually a little dream inside us. For some it may be healthy,lose weight, starting a new business, have better relationships, get closer to children, grow together in marriage, find a life partner. For me my big inner yearning was to some day have an internet based coaching and teaching business where I could share what I knew and at the same time make an income which would allow me to travel and live anywhere and still run my business. What is your inner dream? Next comes the question of what needs to happen so the dream can become a reality. I realized that I would need more energy, take courses, learn about the internet, upgrade my life, figure out how to handle family and work obligations and commitments.
Look at seven different aspects of your life and do an evaluation. Ask yourself:
1.Am I taking care of my body?
2.How am I using my intellectual abilities?
3.Am I happy where I am living?
4.How are my relationships?
5.How am I managing my time?
6.How am I creating and managing energy?
7.How do I take care of my spiritual well being?

In order to recharge your life there is no short cut. It will take paying attention to the seven areas outlined above. It doesn’t matter where you start as long as you are taking some action. One of the first things I did was to join the local gym and make a commitment to go three times a week. Since I had a very busy job I had to figure out how to find time to fit it in. I solved this by spending less time on reading the morning paper and and getting up a little earlier.

Recharging your life involves a willingness to make some changes. We are all such creatures of habit that change of established patterns is hard. We are much more apt to do today what we did yesterday. Start with small steps, keep adding more steps, accept that to attain what you desire will take time and commitment. Enjoy the process and remind yourself that for your own emotional well being you have to take consistent action to bring forth your music.