I have always had the view that life is what we make it, that we never get this day back again so every day had better count.
In talking to others I have sometimes posed the question; ‘If you went to the doctor tomorrow for a routine check and was told that, without any forewarning, you had two years to live – what would you do?’
Nearly all of us know of someone else that this has happened to but strangely many of us have never considered how we would cope in this position.
Of course when the situation is put to them then they immediately start thinking of all sorts of things they would do like; visiting long lost friends or family, setting out to achieve a life long ambition, taking more time out for their spouse or children, to name just a few. And consistantly very few say they would rather spend that time at work!
Well, here’s the good news, we can set off to see and do and achieve all the things we’d like to and – guess what – we don’t have to die at the end of the alloted time. Wow, what a bonus.
This is the fundamental starting point of our life.
Health, Wealth & Time
I believe the three fundamental requirements to following a pathway of our own is to have health, enough wealth and time to pursue our dreams. With one of these elements missing then it is certainly more difficult to achieve but not impossible.
“Ah huh!!” I hear you say, “that means I’m out of the game”. But how much of each do we need and when do we know we have enough? Chances are, if we had just got home from the doctor with the bad news above then we would make what ever our situation fit the circumstances.
But imagine for a moment that the situation was not that dire. The question still remains, how much health wealth and time does it really take to follow our dreams and what would we be prepared to give up in order to achieve those dreams?
Health
There is no doubt about it, the single most valuable thing we can possess is our health. Without good health we are so limited in participating in such a lot of life’s great joys, and yet good health is probably the single most influencial thing we have control over.
Many of us guys in particular can spend considerably more time and money on the upkeep of our cars and toys than we do on ourselves, yet what is more important, to regularly change the oil in our vehicle or to regularly go to the doctor for a check up?
For more on this subject read my Activities and Exercising pages.
Wealth
Wealth is a very subjective thing. Most of us measure wealth in relative terms, meaning relative to our friends and family.
We seldom think of our wealth in terms of Bill Gates or a person surviving in the middle of an African desert. We mostly think of our neighbours and friends and therein lies a trap for we are externalising our perception of ourselves and there will always be perceived differences.
By not checking in with ourselves and doing a thorough internal reconciliation with ourselves we can totally miss the mark on where we are actually comfortable with our wealth, status and ‘place on the earth’.
What say you could retire tomorrow and spend the rest of your days travelling the world and visiting all the places you’ve ever wanted to visit and doing all the things in the world you’ve ever wanted to do – would you do it?
Well, my guess is you can.
Just read more of my pages on retirement and see how this could happen for you.
Time
The one commodity we have no control over and have no idea how much we have left of it is time. Maybe that’s a good thing because, used wisely, this can propel us into taking action now and doing and achieving our goals now rather than leaving them till later. ‘Cos you know what, there may not be a later.
We all have time now, right now, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this. Time is the one thing we don’t actually have to ‘achieve’ in order to live our dreams as we already have it.
Do it now while you do actually have the time. You’re a long time dead.
