The O’Toole Chronicles: Live Your Best Life

It is with a fast-moving calendar that I have begun to notice more and more people using the term—“Live Your Best Life.” While I appreciate the tidiness and efficiency of this slogan, it has me thinking—what does it really mean? And when did this term become in vogue? And are we really living our best life?

As far as I can tell, in 2005 the Oprah Magazine published a book, “Living Your Best Life,” and in 2010, Oprah again used this term…off to the races. Regardless of the origin, I think it is a good idea to explore this concept.

In these times, in this place we call America, we have so much to be thankful for and so much to appreciate. Whether we have a job on Wall Street or Main Street, whether we are pushing high-yield bonds or pushing a mop at Home Depot, there is so much we can appreciate, and if given any real time of pure reflection, we should be spending our time Living Our Best Life and appreciating all the things that we have in front of us.

The world that we occupy is fleeting and we have all witnessed death of close friends or family, and it seems only in those moments of grief that we are overcome with this appreciation for what we have and contemplation of the fragility of life. Again, we find ourselves programmed since birth to be humble and work hard, save for a rainy day or retirement, and push on with this thing called life. Most of us are taught that we will have time later in our so called golden years to exhale. Why can’t we handle this mandate and still live our best life now?

A few thoughts—

If you have young kids, go home early on occasion and spend uninterrupted time with them (no cell phone).

If you have older children, offer to do something nice and age appropriate without the normal stern parental warnings.

Plan a getaway vacation this month with your unsuspecting spouse or significant other.

Go visit a long-time friend or good hearted family member who would appreciate the thought.

Take a subordinate co-worker out for lunch and offer some career advice.

Find a charity that is close to your heart and make a donation or help out as a volunteer.

Make a pledge to pay it forward with some meaningful gesture.

Try making it through a day and not talking about yourself.

Make the effort to refrain from gossip or saying anything negative for 24 hours.

Make the effort to smile more and compliment those around you.

Let me close by saying we can talk a lot about Living Our Best Life and not really understanding it, or we can Live Our Best Life by actually living our truly best life—the choice is yours.