I love the song, “If today was your last day.” by Nickleback. Give it a listen. It is a reminder to me that I have to grab a big piece of life every day, not be complacent, do what is important, choose my priorities, and not waste a minute of it being ordinary. So, if you are serious about living you life on purpose, find a quiet place, curl up on the couch with a nice cup of coffee, turn everything off so there are no distractions, think, and pencil in your answers in a notebook or a begin Word Doc on the computer. You will want to take your time and work hard on this, go in the order I have listed, this is serious because this is your life we’re talking about!
Regret is the worst. To be old and to look back and realize you wasted it, you had opportunity, you had youth and energy, but you didn’t “go for it”, you never got out of 2nd gear, you never overcame your fears, what a waste! What you accomplish in our short time here on Earth going forward will be mapped out right here. The past is done and you cannot change it, you can only have an affect on the future, in the present. My method starts with the “big picture” and move down to the every day level. OK, here we go, and I’ll make it short and sweet…
Obituary- write it yourself, copy the exact format as it is in your local newspaper. Use the same fonts for the header, name, and body, include your picture, use similar language to what your newspaper uses. I’ll tell you right now, take lots of time to do this, and revise it. It is THAT important. Make up a date in the future that is reasonable as to how long you might have left to live. Base your life expectancy on your family history and your current health and set the age at death that is reasonable and likely. Calculate the year, make up a date. That’s the morbid part, sorry, nobody gets out of this thing alive. Hopefully you manage to live the normal life and it is not cut short by some catastrophe. Now comes the fun part, what will they say about you? They are only going to hit the highlights so here’s your big chance to write your own life’s biography. What do YOU want them to be able to say about you? It can be shocking if you realize that you don’t much care for what they could say about you as it stands right now. That’s OK! This is your wake up call. You’re Ebenezer Scrooge, you get a do-over, starting today, right now. It’s Mulligan time! Another way to approach this is to consider what you would do if you were suddenly given only 3 months to live, what would you do with the time left? That is kind of a different question so let’s just assume you will live out the normal life. The odds are in favor of normal.
Life Purpose or Mission- why are you here, just to take up space and consume resources? The question to answer here is how will you change the world? This does not mean it has to be something that changes the WHOLE world, just your little corner of it is OK too. Most of us will not do great things that affect millions of lives, but if we do things that affect one life profoundly, is that not greatness? I happen to think so. This should take another day or so. The best method I’ve ever heard of is to begin writing non-stop, one purpose after another, 20, 30, 40 purpose statements, however many pages it takes. Eventually (after 20 minutes to 2 hours of solid, concentrated writing) you will start getting at the “real” answers, the ones un-filtered by your conscience mind saying what it thinks you want it to say. You eventually reach ones that make you cry. If it does not make you tear up to think of it, keep going, you’re not there yet. When you do, that is the one!
Long Term Goals- the big goals that take years to accomplish. They must directly relate to the purpose or purposes above. Perhaps you want to be in business for yourself, to have no restrictions on your income. There are many steps that will need to be taken to accomplish this, which will take time. As long as these goals “fit” into the purposes set down above, OK. If they do not fit, perhaps they are someone else’s goals that have been expected of you by a well-meaning parent. Make sure these are YOUR goals that fulfill your purpose.
Intermediate Goals- the interim steps needed to accomplish the Long Term Goals. Maybe to do your life’s work, you need a particular college degree. Fine, that’s an intermediate goal that advances you to the long term goal. These are interim steps that need to happen along the road to the long term goal.
Short Term Goals- Those milestones which will lead to the Intermediate Goals. Answer the question: what obstacles lie in the path between where I am today and where I want to be (the Intermediate and Long Term Goals)? Make sure you are going back and filling in all these details on each and every goal. Make sure that for every upper level goal listed above, you have all the steps that get you there, list them out separately to find the missing pieces.
Daily To-Do’s. Make sure they are things that advance you toward something on the above goal list. There are urgent tasks and important tasks. Make sure your day is not spent “pissing on fires”, or just doing urgent things. The best method I know is to each and every day, generate a new list of just 3 top things. Be consistent, these are the 3 things I MUST accomplish today before I do anything else from my list. These are the 3 most important things, not urgent or completely routine things. Brushing your teeth is not part of this list! Each To-Do should directly tie to something on the goals above. You will likely have a long list. Only add during the day, un-rated items, to the bottom of the list. Once a day, either first thing in the morning if you prefer, or at the end of the day before bed, go through your list and re-prioritize it, delete the done ones. Choose your top 3, these are “A” priorities, they MUST be done before any other items get done from the list. “B” items SHOULD be done, but not until the “A’s” are done first and you have the time. “C” items CAN be done if time allows that day and everything else is done. This is important: DO NOT change your list during the day! This is going to require discipline. You will not always accomplish even all your A’s. If you are not accomplishing enough or any of them, you have some distractions you need to weed out of your life. This is going to highlight for you WHY you are not accomplishing your goals. Each day is a unit. If you get all the A’s done, now do the B’s, and so on. Do not do or worry about any of the other things on the list. Add to the bottom all new things as they pop into your head. So, you will want to have this with you at all times. I use an app (To Do’s) on my iPhone, yes, there is an app for that! Throughout the day, I am constantly referring to my list, checking things off, adding new things, etc. Or this can be a piece of paper you write out every day, whatever works for you. Fundamentally, this is the reason you are doing all this stuff in the first place; it is a way to keep you focused on doing things that are advancing goals you want to achieve on the path to a fulfilling and successful life.
I love the song, “If today was your last day.” by Nickleback. Give it a listen. It is a reminder to me that I have to grab a big piece of life every day, not be complacent, do what is important, choose my priorities, and not waste a minute of it being ordinary. So, if you are serious about living you life on purpose, find a quiet place, curl up on the couch with a nice cup of coffee, turn everything off so there are no distractions, think, and pencil in your answers in a notebook or a begin Word Doc on the computer. You will want to take your time and work hard on this, go in the order I have listed, this is serious because this is your life we’re talking about!
Regret is the worst. To be old and to look back and realize you wasted it, you had opportunity, you had youth and energy, but you didn’t “go for it”, you never got out of 2nd gear, you never overcame your fears, what a waste! What you accomplish in our short time here on Earth going forward will be mapped out right here. The past is done and you cannot change it, you can only have an affect on the future, in the present. My method starts with the “big picture” and move down to the every day level. OK, here we go, and I’ll make it short and sweet… Get the rest of the article…