“So, let’s start to think about the life you really want. I find the best way to do this is to ponder a few questions. ...It is my hope that they will help you explore what is possible.
- What do you like about your life as it is today?
- What don’t you like about your life as it is today?
- Do you feel trapped by
any of the things that you don’t like about your life today?
- If you went to the doctor next week and he told you that you were dying and had one year to live, what would you do for the next year?
- If you inherited $10 billion, what would you do with the rest of your life, and what would you do with the money?
- What is holding you back from the life you really want?
- If you could change three things about your life, what would they be?
– Matthew Kelly from Off Balance
Those are really, really powerful questions.
They’re part of chapter #1 on “The Best Way to Live” in which Matthew establishes the fact that we don’t have to settle for the life we’ve stumbled
into.
We can CHOOSE to create our optimal life.
But, that requires that we step back and ask the question all great civilizations have asked: “What is the best way to live?”
In the Prologue to the book, Matthew shares the classic story of the big-time New York City banker who goes on vacation to Mexico and sees a fisherman who only works for a couple hours a day then
relaxes with his family and friends.
The Harvard MBA explains to the fisherman that he can work more hours, buy a new boat and scale up the operations over a couple decades until he’s so big that he can go public and make millions.
Then what? Then, the punch line says, he can move to a tiny village in Mexico, fish a couple hours a day and hang out with his friends and family.
We read that story with a wry smile, silently
chiding the business guy for being so ambitious and, if we’re really unhappy with our lives, wishing we could be like that fisherman.
But, Matthew asks: Do we REALLY want to be like that fisherman? He has no electricity, no phone, no internet, not a whole lot of the things we take for granted. He lives on $125/mo and if you REALLY wanted that life you could make it happen pretty easily.
But, important point: WE DON’T REALLY WANT THAT
LIFE.
All that brings us back to the primary theme...If we’re dissatisfied with our lives we need to lean into that. Own it. And do the (hard) work of figuring out what we need to shift so we can live in integrity with our highest ideals.
Those questions are a great way to shine more light on what we really want and how we can create our optimal lives.
What life do you really
want?
