The John Palm Show

What are you striving for? Quality of Life or Standard of Living?

What’s the difference?

Quality of life is simply how good your life is at any moment in time. Including how content you are, how peaceful your home feels, how much time you spend with those you love or how often you just sit and enjoy a nice meal or converstation.

Standard of living is the attainment of a standard either defined or undefined. Moving up the house ladder, getting a better car, going to a good school, being with certain people, playing certain sports or in certain leagues, or just basically jumping through hoops that you feel your supposed to jump through.

It’s a tricky question. Most people will automatically say “Well, quality of life, of course”. But actions speak louder than words Mr. Quality of Life Guy. Let’s see what is under the hood of your typical day:

• Get the kids up for school
• Shovel in “breakfast” (in quotes because, well, you know how breakfast can be)
• Dad get to work
• Mom get to work
• Pay those bills
• More bills
• Pay those bills
• Kids get home before parents
• Kids find Dad’s Playboy stash
• Mom gets home from work
• Dad gets home from work
• Everybody texts all the people they don’t really care about
• People they do care about are in the next room
• Sports practice
• Homework
• Eat
• Watch TV
• Bed
• Dream about a better “quality of life”
• Back to “Go” and start over the next day.

Oh yea, that is me. Now who is Mr. I’ve Got Such A Great Quality of Life? Makes me want to unplug from all that STUFF and go back to the basics.

Next: The futility of sports driven families and why your child will never make it past High School Athletics.