Living Your Life On Purpose

After many years of digging, I finally found a written version of a story my dad used to tell about an elderly man in the final days of his life. The man is lying in bed alone when he awakens to see a large group of people clustered around his bed. Their faces are loving, but sad. Confused, the old man smiles weakly and whispers, “you must be my childhood friends come to say goodbye. I am so grateful.” moving closer, the tallest figure gently grasps the old man’s hand and replies, “yes, we are your best and oldest friends, but long ago you abandoned us. For we are the unfulfilled promises of your youth. We are the unrealized hopes, dreams and plans that you once felt deeply in your heart, but never pursued. We are the unique talents that you never refined, the special gifts that you never discovered. Old friend, we have not come to comfort you, but to die with you.”

The story, which I finally found in a book entitled 5 by Dan Zadra, has been in repeat mode in my mind. Started when a team member called a several weeks ago and mentioned her father’s health had deteriorated and her family was coming together to make arrangements for extended care. Another team member has been going through the same and had just finished with finding a home for her aging father and is in the process of selling his home in order to secure his final days. Then, a few weeks ago my dad fell off a ladder with a chainsaw in one hand and an oak branch in the other. He was lucky to have fractured his leg and dislocated his ankle versus cutting off an entire limb. With advanced diabetes, the healing process has been extremely rough for him. These things - so close—have extreme impact and have consumed my thinking. Lately, it has been about my husband’s favorite theory on living with no regrets, which goes hand in hand with living life as if on purpose.

Take a moment to reflect on your life. Do you, will you, wish you had done anything different? Will there be any opportunities you really wanted to go after, but watched pass by? Innovative ideas you let drift away? Childhood dreams you let go unfulfilled? If so, now is the time to live each day as if it were on purpose. In the words of Caterina Rando, it is never too late to “live and work without regrets” and to meet each day engaged, alert, alive, enthusiastic and in action. In the words of George Elliot" It is never too late to be what you might have been".

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain

In 2000, Someone forwarded an e-mail to me about a time management expert talking to business students about the bandwidth present in their lives. The story, The Jar (which I posted on 11/6), came at the perfect time as we were entering into the California Conversion and team members were working long and hard to ensure success. I shared the email with our CTO at the time and we created a recognition campaign around it specific to the conversion milestone dates. Amazing how a story about a mason jar, water, rocks, pebbles and sand can illustrate the need to reflect and give priority to the most important "things" in our lives, both professional and personal.

Taking that one step beyond the “things”, the book 5 encourages one to question what values you are being guided by? Family, Friends, Health, Wealth, Faith, Art, Adventure, Love are all examples of lifetime values that should guide your decisions in life. Consider yourself a great adventurer following the north star (values) with only a compass (life mission) in hand. Chart your course. Make a plan. After all, without knowing where you are going how will you know at the end that you got there?

Think about your life. Think about your values. Where are you and where do you need a nudge to get you started on your personal adventure?

Wishing you a life with purpose....and an ending with no regrets. :)
~Stacy

References
Zadra, Dan. Five. Compendium, Incorporated. 2009

Rando, Caterina. “Living without regrets”