Living Large!

...and what it means to me.

Long before it became a cliché or a marketing gimmick, my wife and a few others in my inner circle described me as one who “lives life large”. Their perception of me at the time was one who made calculated choices, embraced life as an adventure, always exploring, and passionate about experiencing more. I did not set out with the intention of living large. In fact, the thought never occurred to me. How I lived was just a result of a mindset of attitudes and a deep desire to know more about my world. What they perceived was someone doing something bigger than they could see themselves doing and having fun along the way.

I have since embraced "living large" as part of my persona, or my brand if you will. I know what I mean by living large, but what does living large look like? First, here are some key definitions and understandings from a generally accepted perspective that describe the individual attributes:

Living:

• Adjective – Active, Functioning; full of life or vigor
• Noun – the condition of being alive; conduct or manner of living
• Thesaurus – animated, vital, active, dynamic

Large:

• Adjective – Ample, Abundant, having more than usual capacity, exceeding most other things of like kind – especially in quantity or size
• Adverb – In abundance
• Noun – Generosity, free of restraint or confinement
• Thesaurus – above the average of its kind

By combining these two words to form a larger concept, I embody the attributes into a method of living. Right, but what does this mean? It means that I approach everything - every choice, every decision, every activity, and every thing I do with vigor, abundance, generosity, and wonder. I choose to be animated and free of restraint; I act alive as opposed to existing or just surviving. I strive to live above the average of its kind.

Living large is a choice, one that needs to be made daily. Living large requires intentionality. I have defined six focus areas that pretty much encompass most areas of my life where I can live large: 

1. I want to see, taste, and experience large
2. I want to do things large, and I want to do large things
3. I want to think large thoughts
4. I want to sense the largeness of my world
5. I want to give large
6. I want to live large (metaphorically - as in "larger than life")

For me, living large is a standard and is so important that I have incorporated living large into my personal mission statement: To live large in everything I do while serving others.

This is what living large looks like in action -

Serving others by:

• exercising my gifts, talents, and skills
• championing the right cause
• creating sanctuary for others
• acting upon my strengths
• sharing and giving my resources where they are needed

Living creatively:

• through broadened experiences
• through communicative arts
• through expanded thinking
• through my giving

Approaching life with an attitude of living large provides me with fulfillment and returns of equal measure. It's like anything else - the more you put into it, the more you'll get out of it.  

 Question: How do you define Living Large?

Originally published April 3, 2013 at CrashMode.blogspot.com