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PICK A LIFESTYLE - ANY LIFESTYLEby Carlos Fiesta One of the most important decisions we as people can make in life is whether we want to adopt a lifestyle that revolves around 'working to live' or one that prioritizes 'living to work'. The decision is not always an easy one to make in today's society, and there are many people who seem to have chosen the latter. Life consistently provides us with many reasons why focusing on making an increasingly better living should be our main focus, putting the actual enjoyment of life on the back burner for some future date. This very important lifestyle decision on how we choose to design our life is not based on one's income, as many people believe. Rather it is based on the state of mind and the attitude of the believer. It is just as easy to live an enjoyable lifestyle with a low income, a medium income or a high income if one's attitude is positive. In many cases it can be harder to really enjoy life with a higher income that seems to 'trap' some people into never thinking they have enough. People who are truly successful in life are those who are consistently able to enjoy the daily joys that life offers, while maintaining a level of responsibility for themselves, friends, family and society, regardless of the income or assets that they may have. People with very little income, once they have attained a basic level of food, clothing and housing, can very easily live a good life and travel the world because much of the world is set up to accommodate the large number of people in this category. I know, I was one of these wonderful people for many years and had a great time living each day to the fullest while maintaining a bank balance that played tag with zero for years at a time. People with a medium income are probably best set up to really enjoy life, if they have the right attitude. These folks usually have enough time and money to do what they want to do if they establish the proper plan and execute those plans with a passion. In the United States one of the traps that many wealthy people fall into is not knowing when to stop accumulating stuff and/or money. Certainly a nice place to live, a good car and an enjoyable lifestyle are worthy goals. However, after acquiring these levels of comfort, many people continue dedicating an unnecessarily large part of their time in pursuit of additional possessions and/or money at the expense of not really enjoying the good life they already have attained. Some of this can be attributed to 'keeping up with the Jones' and some of it can be written off to the habit of working too hard without providing one's self with the just rewards of those efforts. Dudly Moore, in the movie "10" said it best. When told by his butler that he had 'enough' to drink, quipped back "I want more than enough". Such is the mantra of many people who have plenty but don't know when to slow down and smell the roses. It is no secret that one of the most difficult things to do in life is to find that 'balance' of work and play. It can take as much discipline to muster up the wherewithal to know when to slow down and enjoy life as it does to understand when it's time to get your tail back to work. The important thing to be aware of is that we all have a choice when we wake up each morning. Regardless of our upbringing or financial status, we can choose to live an unbalanced life of working too hard and not playing enough. Or we can choose to lead a more balanced life, understanding that it is just as respectable for us to fully enjoy our stay on this small blue spinning planet as it is to contribute to it's evolution.
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