Simple–easy to understand or do; not complicated

Plot–the sequence of interconnected events within the story, play, novel, film, epic etc.

Life–the period between birth and death or to experience or state of being alive.

After living over a half- a -century trying to fit in, do the right thing, dot every I, cross every T in pursuit of the so-called American dream. I returned time and time again to a reoccurring nightmare of endless episodes of random carrot moving at the end of the stick scenarios.

We all know the old storyline. Go to school, work hard to get promoted, buy the house and raise a happy family. I went to school, worked hard, hardly ever got the promotion. When I did get promoted, still could not afford the house and the stress of it all did not make me or my family happy. Might of fact due to stress, I lost ground in the areas of physical and mental health.

Over and over again, I tried to adjust and change to make myself more appealing to my bosses, management and others deemed to be authority figures by society. However, the changes soon became never ending and/or never good enough to please or appease episodes. These scenes became replays of the insurance commercial which had an elderly man of a non-color defined skin tone wearing fishing gear stating, “YOU GOT TO BE QUICKER THAN THAT!”

The problem was that I was looking to people outside of myself to define my vision of success and what would make me and my family happy. Each time I reeducated and reinvented myself, I did not look within. I did not look at how my efforts were slowly depleting me on all aspects. Professions such has healthcare, social services, education and even financial management were high stress and high burn out fields. They required extensive training, certifications, appraisals and brown nosing to get ahead. Let’s not forget people pleasing, self-sacrifice and at times enabling to even get your efforts noticed let alone appreciated.

This process went on for decades. This led to self-imploding and resource eroding results. “Was it worth it?” For very few in society yes. For far too many such as myself “NO!”

After hitting bottom, a couple of times and in various areas of my life, I realized things had to change. That change had to begin with me. Starting with my mindset and how I viewed and acted upon life. I had to acknowledge that I did not enjoy the rat race, moving with the pact mentality. All that multi-tasking, dog eat dog, me first to get ahead way of life. Yes, I want financial stability and to enjoy the pleasures of life but no longer at the expense of me and my families physical, and emotional wellness. I began to seek a life that has more balance.

In this next chapter of my life, I want to continue to learn and incorporate simple, time-tested strategies to balance my life in the areas of health, finance and relationships. Some may be new; some may be old but revamped to fit current times. This blog is my vehicle to share my journey with others on the similar path. Readers may be able to relate to the ideals and views or not. It is okay. Take what you like and leave the rest. Better yet there is an old saying ” When eating fish, know when to spit out the bones.” My ultimate goal is to share a little more peace and happiness with my fellow human beings. Once we are at peace and happy within ourselves, we experience self-love. People who know how to love themselves are better able to love someone else. To that is what the world needs more than anything else. LOVE!