The important thing about conversation is the give and take.  Sometimes the conversation gives you pause, another time it brings forth passion, sometimes you take away nuggets and another you find yourself drifting off to your grocery list.  I had a most interesting conversation about life and “whatever gets you through the day”.  I’m very committed to my health and fitness.  I consider it to be one of my ”core values”.  I believe once you identify your core values, if you want to live an “authentic life” you must stay true to those values.  If you haven’t identified what those are, I guess I would want to spend some time doing just that. 

Our conversation turns to how I have (for years) had a very regular exercise routine that I follow and I’m very careful with what I eat.  Since I was little I’ve had an aversion to doctors, dentists, hospitals and nursing homes and I’m committed to spending as little time as possible in and with all of the above (unless it’s social, of course).  This is not an aversion to the professions,  as I have a deep and abiding respect for those vocations, just my personal pledge to stay as healthy as possible!  So, back to the conversation….my associate states that I need more flexibility in my life. 

Hmmmmmmmmm!  I’m thinking my discipline is the stabilizer in my life, the hub of my existence, my stress mitigation and the rock of my soul.  I’m thinking that I couldn’t get as much accomplished without it.  I’m thinking we need discipline in our emotional lives (keeping a positive attitude), in our physical lives (health & fitness), in our social lives (staying in contact), in our financial lives (or you can’t get a loan and buy real estate from me…see how I worked real estate into the equation?).  I’m thinking one person’s inflexibility is another person’s self-discipline.

I am giving a lot of thought to personal accountability!  This is merely a forum for consideration and a way for me to mentally examine.  There are absolutely people who have medical genetic predispositions to illness or incapacity, there are those who have unforeseen accidents and those born with existing disabilities.  There are definitely people who didn’t understand the loans they were getting, there were some who were blatantly misinformed and those (like a lot of us) who couldn’t imagine the level of adjustment in our real estate and stock markets.  There are those who have endured generational poverty, those with no parent or lineage to guide them regarding money and those who suffer medical emergencies or catastrophic weather set-backs.  Somewhere, somehow we have to teach, learn and share “personal accountability” so that our world can become a better place.  We have to honor our health and physical fitness by committing to a real, not imagined, work-out schedule and eating a truly healthy diet.  We have to research our financial decisions and we have to value saving our money, by actually taking a portion out of whatever money we are making and placing it into some kind of savings.  We have to respect ourselves enough to own up to our own mistakes.  The government (as a separate, distant entity) certainly can’t fix it all and remember we ARE the government (after all, where does government get its money??), so when we say “they need to… (fill in the blank)” that means that “we need to… (fill in the blank)”.  Just a thought…..