How to Develop Your Own Personal Guide to Living

For the most part, everyone wants to get better and better at living.  People have an innate desire to become better at what they do, to have better relationships, to have better understandings and insights that develop over time, to experience and learn more and more.  There is just a general desire in us to do things better today than we did yesterday. No one wants to look back on their life and think, “Where did I go wrong?” or “Things were going so well, what happened?”

As a result, many people devote continual effort and focus on ensuring they are moving in the right direction.  They rely on the information of experts or other people whose opinions they value.  They listen to the advice of friends and family, read books written by experts and blogs that will help them learn about those areas they think they need to strengthen. And, they believe if they can study, absorb and integrate all of this information into their daily living, they will have all of the answers and direction they need. There is no need to consult anyone else.  The advice of experts is the best information out there.

Now, there is by no means anything wrong with looking to other people for advice and experts usually offer great advice…

But, we should also understand another important reality…an alternaview.

Life’s Best Practices: The alternaview

When it comes to being an expert on yourself, you are your best source. Yes, there is a lot that can and should be learned from experts or other people who have a good understanding on certain subjects, but we should also include ourselves in our list of experts.

Not only do we know ourselves better than anyone else, we also know more than we may think.  We have our own answers and information that is waiting to be discovered.  And, one of the first things we need to discover and develop is our own List of Best Practices.

Regardless of how many years you have lived, there have been moments when you were just doing certain things right.  There were things you were doing that were just clicking and corresponding benefits that appeared in your life.  Some of these things you may still be doing and others you may have stopped doing for one reason or another.  Perhaps you got too busy or maybe you just stopped focusing on certain things and turned your attention to something else.  Whatever the case may be, there is so much value and insight that you can gain by reflecting on what you did that worked or what you are currently doing that is working.

Ask yourself all types of questions…What specifically are you doing when you are at your best?  How do you feel? How do you behave? What are you consistently focusing on?  How are you spending your time?  What are you doing with your spare time? What are you eating? Where are you going? Discover your answers and then compile them into your List of Best Practices.

Your List of Best Practices should be used as your reminder of what you have learned that personally works well for you.  This list may change and evolve over time and you should modify it when you have discovered something else that works or determined that something on your list is not really working.

The idea is that this is a list that you can continually rely on and consult to guide you in the right direction day after day. It will allow you to never lose sight of what is important for you.  Things can easily fall out of our span of attention, but when we have our List of Best Practices, we will always be reminded of what we need to do to really be at our best.

Here is a peek at my list:

My List of Best Practices (as of April 26, 2010)

1. Hanging out and spending lots of time with my family; good dinners, conversations, laughing together and having fun.
2. Focused and challenged at work.  Working to accomplish projects and seeing the    positive results of my hard work.
3. Working and making progress toward my personal goals that have nothing to do with my job
4. Drinking lots of water throughout the day; at least 8 glasses
5. Eating healthy during the week and only indulging every now and then on weekends
6. Waking up at least 4 days a week by 5AM to read and write
7. At least 4 hours of downtime on Saturday and Sunday to relax and do whatever I feel like doing
8. At least 2 hours of silent relaxation or reading time every day
9. Exercising 3 times a week for an hour
10. Focusing on being balanced and centered throughout the entire day
11. Reflecting on what I appreciate as much as possible throughout the day
12. Having great conversations and spending time with my friends

Conclusion

Having a list that sums up your best approach to living really makes things easy and clear.  It is easy to get distracted by life and to have those periods of time where we are just overwhelmed with all we have to and take care of.  When we have our List of Best Practices, we are less apt to be lost for too long.  We can visit this list as often as we need to and be reminded of what we really need to make certain we are focusing on and including in our daily routines…that is the alternaview.

If you don’t already have a List of Best Practices, take some time and put one together.  Let us know if you agree with this alternaview and some things that are on your list in the comments section.

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