Today's Challenge:
If you had one week left to live, would you still be doing what you're doing now? In what areas of your life are you preparing to live? Take them off your To Do list and add them to a To Stop list. Resolve to only do what makes you come alive.
Bonus: How can your goals improve the present and not keep you in a perpetual "always something better" spiral?
Today's Entry:
Many people have already commented that this one is a bit artificial. If I really had a week to live, I'd quit working, spend every waking moment with my family, and probably blow a lot of money. Would that be a balanced life, long-term, though? No. Work is important to me, at least in some form.
When I took on this challenge, though, I chose to treat it as a thought exercise, and that means finding the root of the question. Obviously, the deeper question here is "What's standing between you and your passion?"
Honestly, I hate that question, too, even though I just wrote it. I hate the question because I just don't have an answer to it. I'm not one to set course for the New World with a well-drawn map – I generally point my ship westward and course-correct as I go. I wish I had a better analogy, because it sounds like I just go wherever the wind takes me, and I'm not nearly that Zen.
I didn't just flip a coin and head west – something's pulling me westward. A voice deep in my head is saying "Go west, young man" (my inner voice is kind enough not to call me "middle-aged"), and I try to listen. Inevitably, I find friendly ports and the purpose of the voyage starts to become clearer over time. I have direction – I just don't have a destination.
That was a long-winded evasion, but I just don't feel like there's a gulf between where I am now and where I know I want to be. Where I want to be is still forming on the horizon. I have an amazing wife and a beautiful baby girl. I enjoy my work more than I ever have, I make more money doing it than ever before, I'm learning every day, and I get to work from home and spend time with my family.
Is it my Dream Job? I don't know – I haven't had that dream yet. It's better than where I was, though, and it's a path to where I'm going. I don't feel stuck – my wheels have plenty of traction.
The bonus question seems to suggest that I'm missing the boat – moving ever onward toward something better means that I'm never at my best. I guess I just don't buy that. I don't think there's a perfect life for me – life is discovery. We can never go everywhere, do everything, or learn everything, and even if we did it for an instant, more would be created in that instant. To me, that's part of the fun.
To be fair to the intent of the question, there is one aspect I believe strongly in. I've been guilty too many times of preparing when I could've been doing. I'd do it when I had the money, had more free time, took a class, bought the right shoes, and on and on. Of course, those whens never happened – they were just obstacles I put in my own path.
I try to ask myself a couple of times a month if I'm standing in my way for no good reason. Maybe it's client work that just isn't right for me, or maybe it's something I'm holding on to that I need to give myself permission to let go. I don't think there's an ultimate answer to those questions – you just have to make a habit of asking.