Archive for October, 2008

What does it mean to baseline your life?

Each one of us should have a minimum baseline of Life.  There is a term used called the “Poverty Threshold” or  “Poverty Line”.  The idea behind this is simple.  According to Wikipedia, the Poverty Threshold “is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country.”

Of course, that doesn’t really mean anything to anyone.

I’m going to redefine this as your Life Baseline…and I’m going to up the standards.

My definition:  Your Life Baseline is a minimum set of things you should have in your life in order to give you the basic tools you need to reach your full potential.

Of course, with Living the Best Life Ever, I certainly don’t believe in “full potential”, as we can always achieve a higher level, but for now that definition will suffice to illustrate my point.

What is your Life Baseline?

My definition is made to be open so anyone can define what their minimum needs to be for themselves.

Either way, consider what I believe should be the minimum for everyone:

Life Baseline:

• Shelter – a place to call your own that you feel comfortable in.
• Food – a diet that is perfect for you in every way, and has the opportunity to grow and provide you with even greater levels of health in the future.  Also: access to all the food you can use, in the highest, cleanest, and most potent forms available.
• Clothing – clothes that make you feel so good when you slip inside them and see yourself wearing them.
• Internet Access – secure, fast, always-on.
• Work that you love – yes, this is a minimum.  Most people spend their entire lives either doing something they hate, or working hard to try to do something they love for a living.  This is insanity and has to stop.
• Self-respect and admiration – a true, healthy, respect and admiration for yourself.  You must be able to say “I love myself in every way” and really mean it.  Remember, your flaws are opportunities for growth, you should love these just as much if not more than the parts of you you are pleased with.
• Confidence – Goes with the above, but I wanted to mention this separately.  Everyone should feel confident in themselves and confident about themselves around others.  No exceptions.
• Freedom – Absolute Personal Freedom.  There should be no question about this very basic tenant of life.  Doesn’t matter which country you live in.  Right now, most of the world is not truly free.

These are the basic things we should all be guaranteed and expect from birth.  Only from this “baseline” can we expect to truly grow into our full potential as human beings.

There is no way to ever protect ourselves from something unwanted or negative.  That’s not part of this whole process.  These things are necessary in order to grow.  You can not possibly want an improved condition without some sort of condition around you that you currently don’t like.  That’s how we are designed to grow.

That’s how we reach better and better levels of happiness and personal fulfillment.

That’s how we are able to Live the Best Life Ever and guarantee ourselves that yes, it can get even better than it is now!

Are You at Your Life Baseline?

Personally, I’m not.  And most of us probably are not either.  Most of the things I hear others talk and complain about are the basic necessities of life:  meaningful work, enough income to thrive, a comfortable place to live, etc.

Most of those in the “self-help” and personal development field work their whole lives to try and help and inspire others to even get close to reaching their minimum baseline.

I believe that we can create a new world, where we all are guaranteed our minimum Life Baseline and are then free to explore, create, and reach our complete and full potential.

I’m still working on my Life Baseline, but I notice that I do get closer and closer every day.

Part of what I’m doing with this site is to publicly document or discuss certain aspects of me working on achieving that minimum, and then breaking through to go even further to the next level.

It is my hope that not only can I achieve this for myself, but I can help and inspire as many people as I possibly can as well.

~ JS

Living the Best Life Ever!

As I’ve thought about where to take this site, I keep coming back to this desire to create some sort of “useful website.”  Sure, this is a website about “me”, but since seeing others such as Steve Pavlina create successful sites with their name attached to them that actually have useful content, I’ve come to realize that this is the direction I want to go in.

Sure, I want to promote my current and upcoming work…but personally, I would not want to visit a site that’s all about the site owner.  How fun is that?!

Personal Development?

I kept thinking, “how do I make this site more useful and make sense at the same time?  What central focus and topic can I work around that will actually provide people with something useful as well as entertaining?”

I’ve been a student of self-help, self-growth, and personal development for quite a few years.  Going raw has certainly been a part of that, but terms like “personal development” just seem, well, bland to me.

What is “personal development” anyway?  Why better onself?  Why not just sit on the couch, eat, drink, watch TV and enjoy watching the world go by?

Perhaps terms like “self-help” have brought images to others of boring psychologists blathering on and on about thinking positive that has left much to be desired.

We need something more…sexy.  Something with true passion and intelligence.   Something that doesn’t insult our intelligence, but rather aims to stimulate  us into being not only the best we can be, but seeing how far we can go.

The question is…HOW GOOD CAN LIFE GET?

The answer is: LET’S FIND OUT

The Best Day Ever.

I’ve always been a longtime fan of David Wolfe’s tagline “The Best Day Ever!” for a long time.  I’ve often used that in my own life to see what kind of results I could get for a certain day.

While it does conjure some certain feelings, I’m left with…”so what?”

I want more than just the best day ever…I want the best life ever! In every way!

Why else are we here?  Is it not pure insanity to be put on this Earth and not strive to live the absolute best (and even better than best) life you could ever possibly live, in every way?

THAT is what I’m talking about!

There is something with some FIRE in it!

So that’s what I want to do here at JSOhlander.com.  I’m going to use my life as an illustration and guinea pig to help others live the best life they can possibly live.  It is a crime for us to settle for anything less.

Where Does This Take This Site?

While I do have some ideas about where to go from here on out, I’m not entirely sure where I will end up or how it will change as I go along.

Here is what you have to look forward to by visiting here (so far):

1. Life Experiments – Similar to Steve Pavlina’s 30 Day Trials, I’m going to be conducting several Life Experiments on myself using specific ideas and techniques I come across or come up with myself.  These can last anywhere from 24 hours to 365 days.  Lots of ideas here.
2. Extreme Living – How far can one’s personal growth and enjoyment of life go?  I want to see how good life can possibly get.  And then push it further.  And then see if I can take it even further…
3. Articles on Living the Best Life Ever – Once I’ve come to some conclusions, I’ll share what I’ve learned in bullet-point or similar format so you can take something helpful with you and try it out in your own life.

~ JS