Your Best Life…According to Whom?
July 6th, 2009 | 
Author: (I am participating in a little internet adventure, something that I am new to, called a Blog Off.? Read about it here.? Since this contest is raising funds for the March of Dimes, my mother’s pet charity, I happily donated my fee and will be posting a weekly article in response to a given topic. A new article will appear each week on Tuesday for?the month of July, 2009.? Please feel free to comment on what I’ve written, good discussion and different viewpoints are always welcome.)
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Topic: Oprah has popularized the phrase, ?Best Life? with a series of shows centered around so-called ?experts? talking about how to have, ?the best life?.??? What is your definition of a ?best life? and how do you think you are ? or are not ? fulfilling your conception of it?
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?Best?adjective, superl. of good with better as compar.?1.?of the highest quality, excellence, or standing: the best work; the best students.? 2. most advantageous, suitable, or desirable: the best way.? 3.? largest; most: the best part of a day.
??????I find it insidious and admirable? at the same time that a talk show host would aspire to be guru of a tenent such as “Best Life”;?insidious because I am rather cynical when it comes to the commercialization of such concepts…the person espousing concepts and values usually stands to gain a profit somehow;?my belief is that if one truly has faith in?what they are endorsing, it?should?be presented?on an altruistic plane, and not on the platform of trying to sell something.???Admirable because one can hope in altruism…and who better a candidate to place your?hope in than Oprah? ?That aside…
The word “best” when applied to one’s life is subjective at best.? What is best for Oprah may not be what is best for me.? What is best for me may not apply to my neighbor, and so it goes.? Everyone has their own concept of what is “best”.? For some, simply meeting Maslow’s Stages One through Three (from the bottom of the pyramid up) is the “best life”.? In fact I think for many of us, to some degree,?this is true.? We routinely express our thanks to God, our higher power, our lucky stars or ourselves for having just these basic things in life.? Without them, there can be no basis for the concept of the “best life”, which to some is actualized through the top two tiers of the pyramid.? Enter subjectivity of the word “best”.? Some people are satisfied with the tier of the pyramid they’re on, have no desire to venture any further and consider this “The Best Life”.? Those at the higher tiers tend to consider themselves “enlightened” and to them, that is “The Best Life”.?
To put it simply…it takes all kinds of people to make the world go round.? Our lives are a journey, a work in progress; if you can be happy with what you have now in combination with what you aspire to (if anything), then you are living your “Best Life”.? Living in the present…in the moment…this ability is an unrecognized gift that most of us often do not claim.? This gift can facilitate the “Best Life” no matter where we are on our journey, or what the circumstances are.? This gift is rooted deeply in the first three tiers of that lovely lil’ pyramid I referenced a paragraph ago, if you really think about it.
I am fulfilling my concept of the “best life”.? My life is a journey in progress…I am always learning, growing, reflecting, enjoying and looking forward.? I have had my trials and tribulations, great joys and profound sorrows, with many?”in the moment” happinesses sprinkled throughout.?? What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
?My “best life” is a banquet of all these experiences?at which I dine, and on the whole, life is delicious.
S.
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8 Responses to “Your Best Life…According to Whom?”
For me, best life changes day by day. I hear people say that some day was the best day of their life. I have those quite often. Just waking up makes for a “best day”. I looked at the link to the pyramid and found that I sit here with 3 levels filled. Would I like to be sitting on top, of course. Will it kill me if I never reach the top, hardly. It gives me something to strive for daily in my life. So for me, my “best life” is just being alive and having the ones I love and care for around me.
As far as Oprah or her experts advising us on how we should have our “best life”, I say stick to giving away cars Oprah and let us live our lives. We all make decisions that will affect us positively or negatively. Those decisions will change what our best life is.
Here endeth my rant, thank you
I like the idea of the best life as a banquet. A veritable feast of happiness, success and love. Hmm.
Well, I am not sure if the order of the pyrimad is accurate or even close to my personal make-up. I’d have a little bit of both but that is generally how I am, anyway. When I cook recipes I don’t follow it exactly, I add my own flare.
For me, my best days are when my family gives me a hug or kiss for no real reason. Having the love from my family and the closeness with real friends is all that makes my life full. Material things are great but they don’t make my life great. And with the personality I have, I don’t like celebrities telling me or advising me on what a “best life” is or should be. LOL!!
All in all, my life right now is the “best Life” for ME. It might not be for my kids or my husband or anyone looking in from outside, but for me…. It’s the best, imperfections and all. After all, it’s the imperfections that help mold the person we become. It challenges us to decide how we will let it affect us in the long run.
Very nicely put, Stacey. I look forward to reading your upcoming posts!
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen Maslow’s pyramid — thank you for bringing that into your post, I think you built on that nicely. A very well-written article and it made me think in several places.
I think one of the hardest things I have to struggle with is determining at which point AM I really living my best life? For instance, maybe I could have a better, more impressive career. Well, in that case, I shouldn’t be overly satisfied with where I am now, because I’m clearly not living up to my potential. But if I *AM* truly at the top of my game right now and there’s really no higher, then I should be more satisfied and appreciative and less straining, you know? How do I know when I’ve hit the highest level on the pyramid that I can climb? It’s something I’ll always struggle with, I think, and therefore always believe that I could be doing better than what I am, in any area of life.
I agree; who is Oprah to bring in ‘experts’ – I haven’t seen any of those particular shows either, so I just blogged from my own perspective.
The world is made up of different kinds of people, as you say – we are all needed. Comparing aspects of life to dishes at a banquet is a provocative idea – after all, not everyone loves escargot or single-malt whiskey, even if they are considered the “best.”
I look forward to reading your next post!
Thanks for the post. I agree with Nathan, I have not seen Maslow’s pyramid for a long time.
That really got me thinking about how I have all these grand ideas about how I need to live my life but am I meeting my basic needs? There is truth to the pyramid idea and now matter what we think we “should” be doing all of our basic needs must be met first.
Thanks
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