What is important to you? We are inundated with so much stuff in our day-to-day lives that it’s often difficult to see through it.News, video games, social media, money, power, material possessions, etc.
Social media can show us a product we want, or a corporation can dangle a promotion in front of our eyes if we work overtime for a few months. Those distractions can make us forget what we want our lives to look like.
Our habits have both a snowball effect and a butterfly effect. They grow as we push them and they ripple into other parts of our lives. Working overtime isn’t just working overtime. If you do it for too long, the expectation grows. Your boss might never expect you to work less than overtime, and maybe even expect you to work more hours. It impacts other parts of your life like the time you spend with your family, hobbies, travel, and relaxing. Inundating yourself with corporate culture can warp your sense of self-confidence, and change the things you chase to feel happier or more confident. The same goes for material possessions or distractions like social media and digital content.
That’s why it’s important to take a step back and focus on the inevitable: we will all die.
This Will Sound a Bit Familiar...
Imagine you have one year to live. Yes, I know this is a common one, but it’s important. Imagine you have one year. That’s 12 months, 365 days. What would you do in that year? Where would you travel, what would you eat, who would you speak to? Would you keep your job? What about your hobbies?
Take some time and write your list of things down on paper, type it out, or keep a mental note.
Really put some thought into it. I’ll wait…
Now, think of the life you’ve built. Your last month, your last year, your last five years. What have you done with that time? Not just the big things like your career and time spent traveling, but the small things too. What have you bought? What do you normally spend your afternoon doing?
To change your life, you must understand the path you’ve been walking thus far. How much of the past year have you spent making concrete, measurable changes in your life? Or do you simply dream of a better life without taking action?
You may be expecting me to say something along the lines of, “Now live your life like it is your last year on Earth.”
Don’t worry, I’m not going to say that. Hopefully, you will still be alive in one year, so you shouldn’t live like that year won’t come. You shouldn’t quit your job and spend all your money.
Here’s what I am going to say to you though: the things you’d do with one year left in life are the things you need to prioritize long-term. This is what you’d do without all your other distractions. They’re likely the things that make you the most happy. They are things you may wish at the actual end of your life that you spent more time doing.
Life comes with a lot of filler. It’s so easy to get bogged down with what is popular, what people are buying and trying to influence you to buy, and what you should be spending your time doing. But, what’s in that list is everything you’d do if you weren’t dragged down by all that baggage.
It’s fine to give in to distractions every once in a while, but make sure you know that they are just that: distractions. If your current 9-5 isn’t something you’d keep working on in your last year on Earth, then maybe it’s time to find a new job, side hustle, or discover a new hobby. If your last vacation on Earth is feasible with a little bit of savings, then maybe you shouldn’t be getting that purse or that gaming system – especially if buying that purse or gaming system isn’t on your list.
Why is This Exercise Important?
To an extent, we get to make our own rules. Remind yourself of that. Do you actually care about your job? If so, that’s amazing and I’m proud of you! If not, then you should start a passion project or maybe even find a new job.
We are creatures of habit, and we must stay vigilant about the habits we make – both the good and the bad. Even as I realized I didn’t like the path I was going down, it was difficult to break free because of the habits I formed: daily habits, money habits, work habits. My job influenced them all, and it was difficult to break them.
I let social expectations, rules, and money decide my career choices, and that was a mistake. I didn’t care that my job paid well, but I cared that my job wasn’t solving real problems in the world. I didn’t care that my job gave me a “stable” life, but I did care that it kept me from traveling. All my life I dreamt about breaking the norm, but all my choices and habits put me exactly within the norm.
I didn’t want to become another casualty of American life. Another proof of the quote, “Youth is wasted on the young.” I owed it to myself to see what I could do if I broke some rules. I wanted to live my life a little more like I would if I only had a year left to live.
Other people are going to force the monotony down our throats anyway. It’s your job to find out what you love – what will make you smile as you look back on your life.
Find it, and run with it.
