“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
-Steve Jobs
PARADIGM SHIFT
Describing the Perfect Day
For years, I used to attempt to envision what a perfect day would look like to me.
I found it not to be quite as easy as it sounds. I’m curious if you have the same experience.
If money were no object, how would you structure your day? What would take priority?
For example:
Quality time with family/friends
Giving
Volunteering
Exercising
Playing sports
Reading
Writing
Traveling
Sleeping
Starting a hobby
Starting a business
Practicing introspection / spiritual life
Working on your own terms
In the midst of life’s responsibilities, we tend to develop patterns of habit and thinking which work to get us through the next day with as little friction as possible.
And the longer we engage in those habits, the more they feel like just a part of “who we are,” unable to change in any meaningful way.
That’s why I believe so strongly in actively working toward a major life change every 3-5 years.
We as humans need and want predictability. But that doesn’t mean we don’t crave the occasional risk and life overhaul (so long as it’s in a positive direction)!
By making these changes to our situation, we reinforce in our psyche that we are capable of change, and our external circumstances do not define or limit who we are or what we are capable of.
This confidence compounds over time, sort of like investment returns, and causes us to see further. We become more willing to look beyond what we formerly thought to be the boundary.
How does that relate to our perfect day?
When we step outside our normal circumstances, we can see more clearly what we ACTUALLY gravitate toward when we have the freedom to do so. And this helps us steer the course correctly toward the ultimate object of our desire.
Saving up for a gap year, where one takes a full year off work to simply do whatever they’ve always wanted to do, is one of the most powerful things I believe a person can do. And it doesn’t have to be a year. It could be half a year, or whatever gives enough time to truly free one’s mind to think outside the box.
What I think we will find is that our minds clear up enough to show us the energy-wave-like nature of life. We want oscillating patterns of everything: work and play, giving and receiving, self-indulgence and self-sacrifice.
What we don’t want is a fractional life sacrificed upon the altar of a cause which we don’t truly believe in. We don’t want to sell our birthright for a bowl of soup.
In the end, truly defining what our perfect day looks like can help us manage priorities that set us on course to arrive at this place of total wealth. And by this personal compass, we will continue to see yet further as we summit each successive mountaintop.