Tim Storey - Utmost Living: Creating and Savoring Your Best Life Now

Contents

To my older brother, Randy

1957-2000

From bunk-bed roommate to sharing hand-me-down clotheseven though your journey was sometimes difficult, you instilled in me a drive to succeed. Thank you for protecting me and believing in me while I was just a little kid with a big Afro and a pocketful of dreams.

Introduction

I t is time to design the life that feeds the real you, the person with a dream craving to be fulfilled. By opening this book, you have started on the path to your utmost life. Some people ask me what I mean by that, and its really very simple. An utmost life is the opposite of an almost lifeyou know, the life of people who almost take advantage of the abilities and skills they were given. An utmost life reaches beyond a mostly life: the world of those people who mostly have what they want and achieve what they can, but dont really jump up to being as outstanding as they could be.

You are one of the people who want to live an utmost lifea life in which you achieve everything youve hoped for, realize all the dreams you can dream, give back to the world as much as youve been given, and remain richer than ever. I know you can do it. I want to help.

My life and my work are based on the principle that we should always be looking for ways to nourish our spirit as well as we nourish our bodies. The search for the ingredients, the tools, and the techniques that can harvest lifes abundant riches has always been an important part of my life. In this book, I have tried to combine and distill my studies of the spirit, the world, and the lives of profound thinkers, great benefactors, and strong leaders, as well as my experiences in helping people overcome challenges and fears both large and small. In this book, I will share some of the principles I have learned that will unlock the doors to a better tomorrow for you.

This book offers clear and specific recipes to help you make decisions that will empower you to live a rewarding, productive, no regrets life. As a life coach to many well-known athletes and entertainment celebrities, I have seen a similar longing in everyone I counsel, and I would guess that you have it too. You have a dream in you that longs to be fulfilled. Stop, look, and listen to your inner voiceits telling you what you would rather be doing.

You may have come to this book because of a specific objective you want to accomplish, such as quitting smoking or getting a better job. I can help there. You may have a troubling problem in your life that you want to solvesomething that is ruining your health or damaging your relationships. I can help there too. You may have come to this book because of a general feeling that your life is lacking something, a belief that there must be something better to do with your time. I can help you there.

Even if youve accomplished those goals and overcome those problems, there is still something more that this book can do for you. For this is a book about utmost livingcreating a life that does honor not only to yourself but also to the people and the world around you. Its a book about a life that is constantly growing and giving back. Its about an utmost life. Its a book that you may never finish, no more than your life is ever finished. Its about a marvelous journey through a rich and rewarding country that is called your life. Lets take a look at it.

Its Not What Youve Got, Its How You Use It

Without ever having met you, I can tell you that you have all the abilities you need to become a world shaker and a history maker. Its all in how you marshal them to the task and learn to take advantage of the gifts in yourself. That is what makes you special, and in order for you to become great, you will have to use your unique style and talents. Thats what makes you different from everyone else in the world.

Ive had the privilege of traveling to fifty-five of the worlds countries, and forty-eight of the U.S. states. As soon as I arrive at my latest destination, I search for the local diner. Of course, thats not what its called everywherein France its a caf and in England a pubbut every country has them, the places where people come for a satisfying, casual meal, a little conversation, and a comfortable atmosphere. The diners of the world have become a haven to me, but whats more, I believe the way we act in a diner can tell us a lot about the rest of our lives.

For instance, the first thing we have to do in a diner is to make a decisionwhere to sit. That may sound trivial, but its not: everyday choices matter. Have you ever really thought about the choices you make every day? Life is full of tantalizing options and sometimes difficult decisions. The way you make decisions in a diner may reflect the way you live the rest of your life. Do you carefully choose what to eat, looking for the foods that will keep you healthy and energetic, always prepared for new challenges? Do you just take the first thing that looks appetizing? Do you let other people decide what you should eat?

If a waiter seems rushed to take your order, do you readily comply, ordering what you always have when you eat there? Do you ever say, I need more time to look at the menu? If you arent thinking carefully about what goes into your body, you may be rushing through other decisions about what goes into your life too.

But they will always lead to consequences, whether its the occasional bout of indigestion or a chronic heartburn that robs you of the simple pleasure of eating. For example, that burger and supersized fries that we continue to order for lunch each day can add unwanted pounds that stay on our bellies for years. But Im not really talking about the burger and fries. Its the fact that we dont think about what the end result will be twenty years latera heart attack. A decision you make once and never think about again can result in a lifetime of regret. You may have decided years ago to give up on a long-term dream for a short-term advantageand now, after all that time, you wonder why your life seems so purposeless. Your dream had a coronary.

This book is about choosing on purpose the life we want to lead, and learning how to find it. Just as we have to decide what to eat every day, we should be deciding how to live every day. Every choice we make influences the quality of our livesand decisions made quickly have lingering results.

But I dont mean that you should be agonizing over every bite or trying to decide if its the right moment to get out of bed. Just as there are some basic principles about what foods are good for us, there are basic principles about how to live life to the utmost. With these principles, you will develop habits of acting and thinking and living that will transform your life. I want to give you the guidelines that will make your life fully satisfying and richly rewardingnot just for you but for everyone around you.

Now Is the Time to Be Great

Choices matter every day. Dont choose the same menu item each time if you want your life to be different from what it was yesterday. You will regret quick decisions that do not prepare you for utmost living. You may have been ordering the same sausage and mushroom thin-crust pizza week after week, even year after year, but have never stopped to think why life seems dull, dreary, and boring. Or even worse, perhaps you dont decide at allperhaps you are letting someone else plan your menu each day.