“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don't need to escape from.”
― Seth Godin
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I’m writing this a few days before going up the road to the highlands of Scotland. I’m heading for the hills!
Hopefully, given we’re in the depths of autumn here, the weather gods will be kind to us. It has the potential to be wet, windy and cold. But no matter, I’m excited.
Who wouldn’t be? Maybe you – haha – but for me, this is a little slice of heaven.
I love being out in the wilds and having a big fat adventure. These trips away fill my soul in a way that not many other things do.
Now, I know I can’t always be going away like this, but mainly because there is so much I want to do.
But that’s the point, isn’t it?
To make a life where everything is full and rich. Where everything is Good. Where you have a hard time deciding what to do because everything is awesome.
What else could be the point of life?
Yet – I think we get stuck in a rut of believing that life necessarily contains some kind of drudgery. Drudge being the pay off for the good times.
It’s the whole rollercoaster idea of life – that life will be up and it will be down: That some kind of suffering will inevitably come along.
But what if this whole idea was untrue?
That sure, life will contain the unexpected, but what if life could be nothing but exciting …? (To be sure – letting excitement be on a scale of truly, outrageously wow-ed but also completely content).
It's something I make a point of telling my kids – just how excited about work I am. I don't want them to get the idea that anything, even work, has to be boring and a hassle. And it means it's less likely I'll fall into a trap of unconscious programming of my own making.
Now, stop and ask yourself this.
What if this could be true, for you?
That’s a great question, a revolutionary question – so don’t gloss over it.
What if?
Maybe it’s just an idea that life will involve suffering? That it doesn't have to be your reality?
Maybe? And there’s something in just leaving the door of possibility open on this one.
One of the reasons for these emails is to inspire you to be a lighthouse: To be the change you wish to see in the world. And part of that is learning to live a life, as they say, you don’t want to escape from.
Or, as Jack Butcher nicely put it:
“If more money wouldn't change how you spend your time, you're already rich.”
What do you reckon? Wouldn’t that be incredible? A worthy aim, no?
So –
How DO you make your life better, more full of joy and adventure and good people?
Maybe it’s just a matter of making more time and space for the activities and people that are important, even essential, to you. Right? Scheduling that in more often.
But, I’m also into starting even smaller than that –
Like here and now.
How can you make this moment more satisfying? More complete? More free of suffering and drudgery … even “okay-ness”?
Well, I know the more curious you can be about now, the more it comes alive.
It’s a funny expectation we have.
We expect the moment to come to us; to entertain us. When now isn’t entertaining in a way we want, or not living up to our expectations, we leave now to look for a future moment that will be better.
And that’s the trap we fall into. Always looking forward, but never living here.
Yet!
When we fully go into now, this moment becomes imbued with a certain something; something that enlivens whatever you might be involved in.
When you play with this, you’ll find that your focus and attention and curiosity is key. It has the power to transform.
It can transform everything, even suffering, into something so much more than what it was before.
So if you want a rich life, without necessarily doing anything different in your external world, learn to marshal your attention.
Go to the moment, don’t wait. Make the most of what is in front of you.
Alrighty?
Make a life of richness.
So, go well!
Arjuna