First Blog: The Five Areas of Endeavor

The Five Areas of EndeavorI’ve divided my life into five areas I call the Five Areas of Endeavor. They are five aspects of my life that I can exercise control over and make decisions concerning their outcomes. I can prioritize them. Let’s talk about those priorities.1. I have a spiritual essence2. I am an emotional being3. I have mental abilities4. My physical health is important5. The material world has often been at the top of my priorities.Much of my life has been spent in the material, mental and physical realms, dedicated to gathering the things that I can easily see, doing those things that bring obvious results.My education has been important because developing my mind made my professional life increasingly better and enhanced my whole life. As I received more certifications I was able to attract better clients. But as I endeavored mentally I affected the material realm. More certifications attract better clients that have more money and pay larger fees.The physical realm is quite important but for different reasons. Quitting smoking, losing weight, tracking blood pressure, and reducing high cholesterol have all given me more stamina, and a much higher quality of life. Having more energy to do things means you get more done. You accomplish more.With all these areas under my own self-direction, and me moving forward in all of them, you would think that I’d have been happy, wouldn’t you? That hadn’t proven to be true. Baffling, really. You’d think that a healthy bank account, good health and a 12 year marriage to a beautiful woman would mean automatic happiness. Every goal set-every goal achieved. Right? Wrong. Enter the spiritual area.The very act of achievement creates its own maelstrom, its own self-defeating environment. The grander the goal, the greater the stress. Hunting and gathering created its own illnesses. Achievement made me sick because it created higher expectations. So all that I captured was captured by an unhappy, unfulfilled man.Can you really just check accomplishments off a list? That is, those goals that have been achieved by motivation? You see, I believe that motivation is fueled by fear. And fear creates stress, stress creates unhappiness, and so the illness grows.Happiness is a decision, It’s an attitude. I can pick it. And when I do it propels me in directions I chose and love. It is the great gift that comes with our creation-- a free will. I can decide to be happy no matter what my present circumstances. And here is an interesting observation: I have found that although wealth could never bring me happiness, an attitude of gratitude can. Happiness seems to have attracted tons of good fortune.When I am focused spiritually I am balanced emotionally and I can learn without fear. Maybe you can too.This is my first blog. I have introduced a lot of grand concepts here. You can expect them to reappear in future blogs. Look for the category “Five Areas of Endeavor.”