My Parent's Golden_Wedding_Anniversary

What Makes Life More Meaningful?

The meaning of one’s life is determined by the choices we make and the effort we exert. Whether or not our life is meaningful or meaningless depends on whether we choose to be rational and purposeful.

When we spend our lives merely surviving, life can start to be a little empty and pointless that's exactly how many of us live: we work for eight hours or more a day and then we come home feeling too tired and exhausted to do much of anything with our time. So, we sit and watch TV.

For me, there are four things in life that matters

Relationship

Whether it’s with God, family, friends or intimate, these are one of the things we need to be really happy because no man is an island. The most important thing people need is love. We all need to love and be loved. And relationships are the place where your greatest joy comes from

Learning

Constantly learning is a great way to give life more meaning and direction. Ultimately, one of the things that the brain craves most is growth. If it isn’t challenged to learn and grow, then it will shrink and we will become set in our ways.

Make it a habit to constantly learn new skills and pursuits. It can be anything related to your career, a hobby, or even a new language!

Challenge

What is also necessary for life to have meaning is a challenge and to some extent, taking risk. Have you ever been in a situation that was truly life and death? Or maybe, can you get into a situation where you did something really amazing?

These are the moments that the brain focusses and engages with the world. These are the moments when we learn and when we feel the worth of what we have. It puts things in perspective and creates stories. Don’t shy away from the things that challenges you!

Travel

Finally, everyone should seek to have some travel in their lives being able to experience new culture, sights and meet new people is important to keep an open-mind and your experiences varied.

We only live once. Every moment matters. Every effort counts. Every decision has a consequence. There are no neutral goals or values, because every choice we make either promotes our life or retards it. If we want to live our life to the fullest, we have to recognise this fact and act accordingly.

How to Develop Creative Thoughts

 by Ruth Gonzales Penaranda

Creative thinking is a process we are all born with and there are those who don’t make use of that potential because they don’t even know they have it.

Creative thinking can be developed and there are methods and techniques to make our mental habits make creative process easy and instantaneous. For instance,  an entrepreneur sees the potential profit in a situation, because his mind is trained for that. A lawyer sees the potential problems, because that is how his mind is trained. How we repeatedly think becomes a habit, and that is how you train a mind. Learn the techniques of creative thinking, use them until they become a habit, and creative thinking will be as natural for you.

The Techniques Of Creative Thinking

There are dozens of creative problem solving techniques you can learn to use. “Concept-combination,” for example, will have you mixing roses and clocks to create the first alarm clock that wakes you up with a gentle release of fragrance. Use the technique of “random-presentation” and a cell phone can give the idea to do your dictation with a pocket tape recorder while you walk, so you’ll have time for exercise and still get your work done.

Creative thinking goes beyond just solving specific problems or inventing new things. A truly creative mind is always coming up with the questions too, not just the solutions. To be more creative all the time, focus on three things: 

1. Challenge your assumptions. What if a restaurant didn’t have employees? Customers could pay a machine as they enter, and feed themselves at a buffet. If everything was as automated as possible, maybe one owner-operator could run a large restaurant alone. Challenge everything. Do you have to go to work? Do pools need water? Is education always a good thing?

2. Change your perspective. Imagining a dog’s thoughts about your busyness could clue you in to the unnecessary things you do. Thinking dollars-per-day instead of per-hour could give you a plan to let employees go home when they finish a certain quota. Greater efficiency would be almost certain, and you could adjust daily pay and quotas so both you and employees made more money. Look at everything from several perspectives. 

3. Let your ideas run wild. Flying furniture seems silly, but it may lead to the idea of a hover-lifter. Slide the device under furniture and it lifts it with a cushion of air, making for easy moving. Don’t stifle your creativity. Relax, let ideas come, and know that you can always discard them later.

Creating Creative Thinking Habits

To make the above techniques into an automatic part of your thinking, just use them enough. Usually it takes several weeks to develop a habit, so you need a way to remind yourself each day during that time. Try writing a few of your favourite techniques on a card and carrying it with you. Pull it out throughout the day and apply the techniques to anything. Soon, more creative thinking will be a normal part of your life.