I’ve been encouraged over the last couple of years to write a newsletter to capture the ‘Best of Bob’ in real time. Interesting and valuable concept, isn’t it? So, I decided to make this a reality in 2025. If I had been able to subscribe to such a tool 20-30 years ago, I would have willingly paid good money and built a library of amazing advice over those years; reviewing it periodically to keep refreshed. Now this opportunity is yours for years to come.
Study my website and learn who I am and all the remarkable successes I’ve enjoyed over the last 60+ years! I’ve wondered what the value of my wisdom is daily; $1, $2, $5, $10? The answer is all that and more. Some people pay more than this for one Starbucks a day. I promise all my subscribers that you will always receive more value than what you pay to subscribe. I look forward to knowing each of you over time.
Let’s enjoy this journey together.
In 2023, I published “Life In Harmony” (LIH).
The 3 tenets are:
1. Being Your Best Self
2. Family & Loved Ones
3. One’s Purpose
I’ve learned in my lifetime that these are the 3 most important aspects of everyone’s life.
Each month I’ll provide deeper insights in real time of living our LIH journey. I’ll answer readers’ questions and make revelations in my next book: “Start at the End”.
Let’s get started
One of the best practices in life (especially in January), is to sit back and assess how we’re doing. Are we living our lives the way we want? Are we happy, healthy, and full of zeal?
This is not a question of any limitations we may have. It’s a question of whether are we doing everything that we can do in a meaningful way. A friend of mine who has some physical limitations says he is ‘differently abled’. How’s that for perspective?
Check Lloyd out at https://www.yes-you-can.net/.
Get some paper and something to write with. Yes, I know it’s archaic. You’ll thank me later. 😉
2024 in review- Let’s write...
Tenet #1
Being My Best Self
How did you do this past year? Write stuff down.
Questions to ponder…
How was your health overall? Did you have any specific health plans beginning last January, e.g., sleep, nutrition, exercise, doctor visits, etc? Were any of these plans written down? Were they followed? Were the results good, better, or best? At this point of review, we could do a gap analysis (very important) plan vs. actual.
It’s sort of a test of our will and/or determination. In my book, I refer to my friend Heather who is a 3x Ironman Champion. How the heck does she do it (?) The amazing part of her success is the daily grinds she goes through before and immediately after competitions.
The point I’m making here is anything worthwhile is worth the effort. Part of being our best self includes our mental health. Do we read, study, learn new
things, engage in conversations?
Reality TV marathons or negative news blasting constantly do not enhance our health or happiness.
A valuable part of this newsletter is my sharing what I’m doing as well. It’s not about me preaching to you. I will share what I do myself in the spirit of helping you in our journeys together. Last year I had goals in the 3 tenets of my life. Many goals were achieved due to constant vigilance and monitoring. I’ll show you my tools in the months ahead. Stay tuned.
I also missed some targets. That’s where areas of growth show themselves.
That’s the value of looking back, contemplation, and refocusing (as needed). This year I’ll turn 74.
Holy Cow. “Happy, Healthy, Wealthy, Wise” – I think Ben Franklin made that famous.
Tenet #2
Family & Loved Ones
This one can be tricky depending on one’s circumstances.
Questions to ponder: What were the best things that have happened in these areas recently? How can you go about making more wonderful memories this year? When things went wrong or not as you expected, how did you react, fight, flight, freeze, etc.?
My only son Michael died April 8th, 2023, of "natural causes" one month before his 43rd birthday. I miss him every day. This single life event changes everything from now on.
Relish the present, reflect and reminisce on the past, and embrace making memories today.
I’m surrounded by my favorite Michael pics. It helps me keep him alive in my heart.
By the way, his mother has been in a memory care facility for a couple of years now and is deteriorating rather quickly. Life’s challenges.
What do we do with these types of life challenges? The healthy answer is to stay positive.
Look ahead. Plan ahead. Live life to the fullest today and each coming day. If we don’t, then we cheat ourselves out of what could be our best life. It’s ok to be sad and melancholy sometimes. Study centurions. How do they overcome tragedies?
This inaugural newsletter can be reread throughout the year as inspiration and reference.
Tenet #3
My Purpose
Years ago I would have described my “purpose” as my career.
Thirty years as an executive with United Parcel Service (UPS). In retrospect, 25 years later, my view was pretty narrow at that time. Didn’t see the forest from the trees, as the saying goes.
Today I advise others to have a much broader view and definition of what’s most important in life. Yes, a job or career is important to make a living and even get ahead of the crowd if that’s what you wish. But it should not define who you are in totality.
One’s Best Life balances all 3 tenets in harmony. Easily stated. Very challenging in practice.
Doable for sure with practice, patience, persistence, and a positive attitude toward living life happily and in balance. So, let’s close off this exercise of reviewing last year. Write what happened good and not so good. Now the value of all this writing is your mindset is now fresh on what you might want to be about this coming year. If you’re not ready to embrace all 3 tenets just yet, try choosing only 1 for the first 90 days. Again, there’s real value in writing! It enhances our brain power.
2025 – Looking Ahead
Imagine what can be. This single ability (to imagine) differentiates humans from everything else on earth. Amazing indeed. One of my favorite sayings is “100 years from now, all new people”. So, what does 2025 mean to us when we realize no one will remember that we were even here 100 years from now? Maybe that saying is a bit outdated since we now have amazing technology including being able to record life’s happenings in perpetuity and cryogenic preservation (yikes). If it’s even possible, would you want to come back from “death” 100 or 200 years from now? Kind of spooky, don’t you think? Too bad the famous baseball player, Ted Williams, is frozen in 2 parts (head separate from body). Will baseball even exist eons from now?
Back to reality 2025 style. We could first spend a couple of minutes thinking about the so-called Big Bang (backward thinking). What was going on one second before the “bang”? Or wonder what it will be like when our Milky Way galaxy collides with our neighboring galaxy Andromeda in a billion years or so (foreword thinking)?
These are questions without answers. Mysteries exist. Paradoxes confound and confuse us. Why isn’t everything just simple? Why does everything keep changing? We could ‘give up’ or try and ‘keep up’.
There’s danger in FOMO (fear of missing out). Unimaginable time consumption trying to ‘keep up’.
The best things to keep on top of in 2025 are the 3 tenets of living a Life in Harmony.
NOT reality TV, or the so-called 7 deadly sins, or the “news” (“,” for emphasis). Social media may one day be identified as the future 8th deadly sin (wink emoji).
Let’s wrap up this inaugural newsletter with some homework.
Write down what are the most important parts of your life. Take your time and write thoughtfully and with heartfelt meaning. I’m intentionally avoiding the word “things” here. I’m guessing these might fit into one or more of my 3 tenet life analysis.
As you reflect (taking your time), write intentionally. There are no mistakes.
Your goal is to capture what’s most important to you and then taking the next step of identifying how to embrace and strengthen those parts of your life in 2025.
Write a plan of what December 2025 will be like in these most important areas of your life.
This is the visioning step. What happens next is backing up from the year-end vision to mid-year progress views. Then, of course, backing up from there to the second and first-quarter actions that bring those visions into reality.
I’m reminded of a couple of life events that happened over the last 40+ years.
This will be a bit of memory lane fun. When I was in my 20s, the futurists said that a new thing was coming. It will be a plastic card that can replace money to buy things. I said, “No Way”. I was wrong! Fast forward. I’m in my 30s and the futurists said this new thing is coming. It’s called the World Wide Web.
http://thiswilldoandbeeverything.com (example).
I said, “No Way”. I was wrong! Fast forward again. I’m now in my 40s and this man goes on stage wearing all black and announces that he has this thing that will be changing the world. He was holding up the iPhone. I said, “No way”. I was wrong!
Little did we imagine at that time. Wait, there’s more... I get to my 50s and this college kid wants to figure out how to keep in touch with his buddies remotely. Then he imagines he’s not alone in thinking this way. So, Mark Zuckerberg creates a social media platform in his dorm room. And Voila – today’s social media frenzy begins. I said, “No Way”. The richest man in the world from a dorm room. In my 60s, it was the creation of crypto replacing money and credit cards. Do I say No?
And it gets worse (or better depending on your point of view). Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay. We’re getting out of control perhaps. Driverless cars. A robot checks you into your hotel room. The world now seems determined to have humans not do the work anymore.
How will this help us in the future if we “accomplish” 50% worldwide unemployment?
I don’t even like checking myself out at the grocery store. Bring back the people now!
I digress. Here’s the point. Focus on what’s most important to you in 2025. There will always be noise swirling around us as we try to keep up (or not). Develop your written plan to enhance your best life starting this week.
These newsletters will continue, and we’ll be having a lot of fun together. 😎
My pretty and talented partner, Christina Cohen (https://www.cohencreativedesigns.com) will enhance and beautify this inaugural edition for your collection. Thank You 11-11.
February’s newsletter will have a plethora of tools and forms to enhance your 2025 Life in Harmony journey. My type A subscribers will go to https://www.bobpara.com/life-in-harmony and purchase the Life in Harmony workshop materials ahead of time. I’ll include a 30-minute personal call to the first 51 buyers as a value-added bonus to you.
Write us at Bob@BobPara.com. Or call for a short chat at 808-630-5050.
Strive in ‘25
A fabulous gift to all of us, Bob! I'm thrilled to see this newsletter get going and excited to see what nuggets of wisdom you offer next. Here's to a mindful, hopeful, and strive-ful 2025. 🌼