Today I want to talk about living your best life.
At the end of all the ‘prep’ work, the end of all the barbecuing, the end of all the programming my itunes to make sure I had enough good music, and after all the eating and drinking and story telling and laughing at this Fourth of July celebration, my friends and I retired into the living room, where I took my usual place at the baby grand.
Lucky to have had the lovely Meredith, and her main squeeze Jay over. Jay in his earlier years played guitar and sang back up with Glen Campbell, played on all the disney hits we have heard when we watch the Main Street Parade, etc. Equally lucky enough to have Jeffrey over, with his brand new bass. As long as I know him, he has always been in three bands at once, in search of that one group that will actually ‘hit’. And the one thing all three of us have in common is: we can’t function without music. You can take everything else away, and as long as we still have our music we still have a level of satisfaction that will sustain us.
Anyway, as I sat there singing harmony, playing the piano and sometimes using this little egg that I shake to keep the rhythm, if we go to just guitar and bass on a song…….I was feeling that I had the best life. My true friends were hanging with me (the one’s that couldn’t make it spent time on the phone with me earlier to catch up), my son was home….. and my daughter (who said she wasn’t coming) showed up with her boyfriend…….. and for that one moment in time, I had peace (to quote the father in While You Were Sleeping, one of my favorite movies).
So what is ‘living your best life’ for me?
I think it’s about being uncluttered……..both physically and mentally. Getting my space ‘down to a science’ so that I know what I have and where it is, and when we go for an uncluttering of the brain, focusing on the things that are important, letting go of the past and staying in the moment knowing that for everyone one thing is mostly true: When we know better, we do better.
A best life means I review it periodically and eliminate people and events that are energy vampires. And I continue my projects that mean something, even if I haven’t yet found an audience for it.
That brings me to my 6 week series – Food for Thought (the second show is this Sunday). The reason I created it, was to give all the people I have met in this past year at all the meetup groups I have attended an opportunity to network…. to sell, without selling. I feel strongly violated by people who do a strong ‘sell’ on me, and by creating a 6 week show, where I pick a topic they are connected to and do an interview show, followed by food and drink for both my San Diego Foodies and Encinitas Chop and Sip, I give them a chance to show their ‘best self’ by giving the information they know, giving their opinions, and then letting the audience make up their own minds about who they think is trustworthy and credible, allowing everyone to mingle after the show, and without pushing sales hopefully to see where each can be ‘of service’ to each other.
This Sunday I am highlighting one person: for a long time we called him Rick I, the LinkedIn guy. But he’s really about way more than that. He’s a motivational speaker who has done so worldwide. And it seems that with all our social media wants and needs, with all the new things that seem to be created daily and no real manual to understand the reach of any of this, I thought I would pick his brain for my audience for a half hour and then give them a chance to ask questions.
The week after, I am doing Food and Women, with a panel talking about how women handle food, what it means and how to make subtle changes to get back into health. I will be hitting Food and Wealth after that…. talking to the experts in that industry. I know in August I am doing a social media panel. And in between for the 2 other shows, I am listening to what people want those topics to be.
At the end of the day, I will have a 6 Week Series to sell on my website, some new found friends (both experts and audience members) and will hopefully derive a spec of income from the experience. I will have done something, in my world, that is worthwhile and contributed to living….. you guessed it….. my own best life.
Stay tuned! And try to attend some of my events!
Best,
Chef Marian