Our lifestyle and choices define our standard of living. The way we live, our socio-economic status and our standing in the society also describe our standard of living. Suppose we are living in a city that is among the top tier cities and we have busy schedules throughout the day, then we are having a certain standard of living that depends on our professional equations.
Now assume we are living in a rural area, doing farming the entire day and have nothing much to worry about professionally, then that talks about a totally different life and different standards of living altogether.
We can see that the two lives of two different people are poles apart and can in no way be connected, that’s because their standards of living are completely different from each other. Each has its own set of values and parameters that define their respective standards of living.
A rich businessman who travels every fortnight on account of his business meetings has little time for his health and personal life. Let us now contrast this with a bank employee of a medium-sized bank working for fixed hours and having ample time for his family and to look after his own health and fitness.
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In the first case, the lifestyle of the businessman is mainly money-driven and to keep up with huge expectations, he has to compromise on his health and personal life. So, though he seems to be a rich man with enormous wealth, he may not necessarily have very good standards of living.
Compare him to the bank employee. He works for fixed hours in the bank and returns home after his work, on time everyday and gives time and space for his family. He has time for his own work-outs at the gym. He is able to balance his family, professional life and his own health on a very good scale.
Though he may not have acquired enormous wealth due to his position, he is leading a content and satisfied life for himself and his family. He sounds like having some very good standards of living.
Good and Bad Standards of Living
So let’s now come to the definition of standards of living. The health that god has gifted us, the wealth we acquire due to our position at the job front, the lifestyle we have and the quality of life we maintain, all define the term ‘standards of living’.
Let’s now focus on what we commonly hear as good and bad standards of living. What parameters are said to be good and what is bad? Having a sedentary lifestyle, not giving enough exercise for the body, not giving enough space for one to grow, and having negative approach towards life – all these speak of a bad standard of life.
Maintaining good standards mean having a lot of self respect for oneself, being conscious about the surroundings we live, having a positive approach towards life, being calm and patient, focusing on one’s health and fitness, being professionally active and having a broad outlook towards life.
Let’s now focus on how to increase our standards of living. Suppose we have a neighbor who has been dumping garbage in our compound on purpose and we raise our voice against it. Things don’t seem to change and we confront them with rude words and thereafter stop talking to each other.
Now in this scenario, which has better standards of living, the answer is none. The neighbor who throws the garbage into the neighboring place is aware of his wrong-doing but continues to do so out of a bad choice. The person affected by the garbage-throwing at his house can actually explain in polite words to the wrong-doer about the mistake he has been doing.
By talking rashly and rudely, people often tend to turn against us and we end up quarreling and having bitter fights. Throwing tantrums would become a way of life in his case. If he handled the situation with some patience, he could have found out why the neighbor threw garbage at his place and ways to stop him from doing so.
This may not reflect his standards of living but an unwilling mind never tries to change itself for the good and that becomes a way of life for him.
Positive Approach towards Life
When we see somebody overtaking our vehicle from the wrong side, the first thing we do is to yell at the person for doing so. The person would have very well passed by and gone much ahead of us, but we still keep discussing the wrong thing he did over and over again.
The person who did the mistake has actually left from the scene. But the person who is in way responsible for the wrong-doing is still sitting with the situation that has gone behind. To top it all, there is no use of screaming at the person as all shouting only fell on deaf ears.
There could be an alternative way of dealing with this situation. The person who was overtaken could have noted down the vehicle number and traced the driver’s contact details. The driver could have been contacted and told in nice words that what he did was completely wrong and the risks involved in overtaking are also plenty.
This speaks of a better way of looking at things. The wrong- doer could be made to realize his mistake. In the former approach, yelling and getting angry only took a toll on one’s personal behavior and nothing else. There are so many other situations where in we act without thinking.
We may not like somebody speaking something against us and we may fume with anger at them. We fail to notice the bigger picture here. We do not see whether somebody speaking something against us is going to be of any use in our lives. Not at all. All we do is to over react for every silly thing we come across and reduce our quality of thinking. With this, our standard of living also comes down considerably.
Health, Fitness and Holistic Living
It goes without saying that health and fitness are the factors to have a very good lifestyle and maintain good standards of living for ourselves. When we begin to broaden our vision and start living with a positive framework of mind, everything around us seem so different.
In any situation, if we learn to handle them with a calm mind, then we have won half the battle. A healthy mind in a healthy body is a very true saying that reflects the state of our mind. Our quality of thoughts dictates the kind of life we want to live. Having a positive and motivational outlook towards life causes life to seem much more beautiful and reduces one’s tension and worries.
People in current times aim to have very high standards of living and take many routes to achieve thus. They take the inner route leading to their mind and start finding answers there. People seek a lot of help from spiritual reading and practicing yoga. They have healing powers and create goodness from within.
They bring in power to create a positive environment at home and let prosperity thrive amidst these factors. The power of positive thinking has such fascinating benefits that it can transform a person completely allowing him to climb up the ladder of life, both professionally and personally.
He begins to view his problems as a mere road block and works towards clearing the road block rather than cribbing about it. When man raises his standards of living, he finds the good in everyone and stops blaming others for his own faults. He becomes more responsible towards his goals and acts wisely.
He seeks holistic way of living and everything that seems negative just seems to stay out from him. He begins to view life as a big bundle of opportunities and puts his best foot forward to make his dreams come true. He makes a happy space for his family to live and gives them healthy advice and strong choices in life.
He influences people around him and improves their opinions over him. A broader vision towards life helps one lead life with discipline. Discipline about one’s work, one’s health, one’s family and one’s life as a whole creates very high standards of living for all.
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