What Are You Fighting For?

With obligations hanging over our heads on a daily basis, it’s tough to find time for what you’re really fighting for --- you!

It shall be noted that I will use the word “fight” throughout this entire article with it pertaining to image of the raw, survivalist instinct it invokes, not “fight” as in brawl.

We fight for someone everyday. When we stand up for an officemate being abused, or when we say we’ll fight for love, or, in times of desperation, there’s a fight for your life. But do you really have to be in times of desperation to fight for yourself? That’s what is lacking in most people nowadays --- a relationship with themselves.

When you think of yourself as a fighter, it means you possess enough inner strength and scrappiness to face tough issues ahead. Here are some of the important things to fight for:

Fight for your rights. According to the World Health Organization, "the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being..." It is your absolute right to be healthy. Should you feel someone is hindering that goal, then it’s time to fight for your basic rights. If you didn’t know the basics about your health rights, then part of the hope is lost --- people may be taking advantage of you already.

Fight for food. Well, not literally. Everyone deserves a good well-balanced meal, and not live off on fast foods, junk snacks and sodas. You deserve what you get --- you should never, ever feel bad about spending for food. Not only is eating one of the most basic joys of being alive, it’s also our main source of energy, to fight for the next day.

Fight for the truth. News reports about the latest health miracle shouldn’t be considered the pure and absolute truth. Think about it … is televised news 100% accurate all the time? So what should happen, should they introduce health risks and hazards --- are you going to believe them, no questions asked? A feeling starts from signals from the brain. If you listen to your television 100% of the time, you’d be too petrified to leave your house, in case viruses were on the loose.

Fight for youth. When you fight for your life, your adversaries (the bad habits) are just one thing to think about, you get older too; Slower reflexes, memory problems, and a blurring eyesight --- is this what you want? Probably not. Rather than stay laser-focused on the issues everyone gets when growing old, why not fight it? Fight for life. When you fight aging, you are committed to making yourself better, not only will you remain youthful, you also ward off diseases that come from a lifestyle of excess.

There you have it. These are the things we have to fight for in our lives if we haven’t been doing so already. We owe it to ourselves to put a smile on, and fight for the new day.

Go to Over 40 and Fighting website now!

Over 40 and Online!

It’s no surprise that I still make online boo-boos. I just turned 43 this year, and have just learned about blogging. Aside from blogging, I’ve learned (with help from the children) what’s new on the internet. Now I’m not saying that the internet isn’t for people over 40, it’s just that email has been, for me, the pinnacle of the internet --- and that wasn’t even half of it, apparently.

Aside from my newfound blogging/email knowledge, with help from officemates and kids, I’ve discovered a whole wealth of great services and social tools that enrich my 43-year-old life’s online existence.

Budgeting
I admit my budget plan before has been pretty simple --- keep 10-20% of my income in the bank, save for at least 6 months’ worth of pay in the bank, and splurging whenever I find something that the family wants. I was pointed over to Buxfer --- a finance application over the web. It helps you keep track of your spending, plus, it even syncs up with your bank … online! Whenever you do transactions with your bank, it automatically updates your transaction list. You can even set it to send emails for bill reminders, or weekly finance updates.

Pictures
I’ve taken literally thousands of pictures over the last few years. My family has a love affair with the camera, and it looks like none of us are stopping at any point. Which is why we all have accounts on Multiply. My kid set it up so my contacts are family members, plus, we value the privacy options in keeping the content exclusive for sharing tender family moments.

Health
I’m not the perfect healthy being out there, but I’m not unhealthy either --- for that, the wife and I are updated on the newest development in health via Over40andFighting and WebMD. The former being my foremost source of discussion with people my age, while the latter, just an overall health information website.

Friendships
I’m just surprised at how Facebook works. It was a blast getting in touch with my mates from school, and how each one have families, or are living far, far away now. The class bully added me up to be my “friend.” This is as surreal as how my online social life’s going to get. For my close-knit buds though, we have a group page on 24Ever, and the cutesy interface just doesn’t get old in my eyes.

Videos
It was a big deal back in the 90’s when I had my officemate set up a meet on an IRC server on a specified channel to get in touch with my family. (Or whoever got the instructions back then) Now they have video on a site called Vimeo? Which is much more immediate than lugging around a camera, burning the footage on CD and sending it out to family, hoping that nothing bad happens on the trip.

Well, I think that’s my range for my online life over 40. I’m pretty sure that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what can be done online. Do you have any suggestions for what else I can do online? Kindly share a comment below to let me know.