Qualilty of Life - Part III

 

There are serveral key terms in the quality of life description from Part I...  and, we explored three of them in Part II, and now we will explore the remaining ones: 

1. Position in life
2. context of culture
3. context of value systems
4. goals
5. expectations
6. standards
7. concerns

Note:  Goals, expectations, standards, and concerns will change substantially over one's lifetime whether intended or not simply because of age and the condition of our health which could be altered immediately and without provocation.

Goals

Basically, goals are what one wants to achieve during one's lifetime.  However, we seldom think about the goal of retirement when we are 20 years old.  Initially our goals are to graduate from high school and pursue a career.

We might go into the military, college, trade school or simply attempt to find employment.

Our goals change when we get married and again when we have children and again if we were to experience a divorce.

Having goals is what motivates us each day to go to work in whatever capacity and strive to move up the ladder and generate more income for ourselves and for our families.

Middle age changes our goals both mentally and physically as we realize we cannot do those activities that were easily done before.

Consequently our Quality of Life changes...

Expectations

Similar to goals are our expectations and these change in direct relationship to our age.

When we are 20, we can double our age twice from 20 to 40 to 80 and our expectations for our quality of life are large and plentiful.  but once we turn 4o, we can only double our age twice, and we begin to develop a different perspective of our expectations and whether or not they are even realistic or not.

At 50, 60, 70, 80 and above we can no longer double our age and our mental expectations begins to decline as well as our quality of life...  we begin to measure our quality of life day by day...  in other words, what is my quality of life today?

Standards

When we our young, our standards are high as we feel like we can mentally and physically do any damn thing we want to do...  quality of life is therefore high as well...  and life is seen not just as a dream but as a reality that we created.

Age changes those standards as we lose our physical and mental capabilities and that loss impacts our quality of life.  

We no longer want to drive anywhere for a week's vacation like we used to do...  it was commonplace to drive 8-12 hours in one day to get there and return.  And, we may or may not have the finances to fly there...  and if we did, we would still have to rent a vehicle...

Our quality of life changes dramatically when we look at our standards...

Additionally, we would be willing to spend the night in a motel room at 20 that we would not even consider once staying in at 40 or 50...  if for no other reasons than for health concerns...  which brings me to my last subtopic.

Concerns

Quality of life is directly related to concerns and concerns is directly related to finances and health.

• Do we have enough money to do this?
• Have we saved enough money?
• How healthy are we?
• What are COVID?
• What about terrorism?
• What about crime and violence?

TO BE CONTINUED...