If we are to build a life strategy or to define a successful life, where do we start? The question can be overwhelming. It’s like staring at a blank canvas with painter’s block (if painters suffer the same mental dilemma/state that writers often do).
Fortunately, we can bring in some consulting advice to help us frame our approach. In every project or endeavor, be it small or great, there are three major components: a Current State (Where you are), a Future State (Where you want to be), and a Transition State or Migration Plan (How to get there). We can call this your Life’s Road Map. Whether you are baking a cake, building a space shuttle, or developing a life strategy, they all contain these three components.
Your Current State is where you are now. So, in your road map of life, this is the big, red arrow pointing, “You are here.” For now, we’re not concerned with how you got to your particular “You are here” location, although that information will play an important role in how you make wise decisions in navigating your future Migration Plan.
Our immediate quest is to define our Future State. Where do we want to go? What is our desired ultimate destination? Once we define our Future State, then we can proceed to our final step which is to determine the best way to get there.
So where are we going in our life journey? What’s the goal? What’s the plan? What’s the exit strategy if we even have one? The second habit in Stephen Covey’s highly successful book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” advises us to “Begin with the end in mind.” In other words, visualize your life and how you would like it to be. What would you like to accomplish? What desires do you want to fulfill? Covey even proposes a thought exercise to imagine your death and attending your own funeral. What would you want people to say about you? How would you want people to remember you?
Those are useful techniques to stimulate thought and help you define what is most important in your life. Like laying a foundation for a building, the most important stone is the cornerstone as all other stones are placed based on the placement and position of the cornerstone. In our lives, every person has an internal value system of which there exists a cornerstone. We may not even know what our cornerstone is, but it is there. It is what we consider to be most important in our life.
But let’s return to the 2nd Habit: “Begin with the end in mind.” The critical question becomes, “What end should we use to begin?” Covey’s mental exercise was to imagine your death. Is that the end in mind we should have to create a successful and fulfilling life strategy? At first glance it seems logical, but let’s consider the following:
“If there is a Creator of the universe whom we’ll call God and…
If God has prepared for mankind a life after this earthly life that is far greater in terms of duration and potential i.e. it lasts for eternity and is far more fulfilling and enjoyable than anything currently on earth and…
If what we say, think, do, and believe in this earthly life somehow affects what our status will be in this next life…
Then…how should we live our life?”
How indeed?
This changes our perspective doesn’t it? If…and it’s a Big If…if there is a future eternal life that far exceeds the enjoyment capabilities of this earthly life, then shouldn’t it be considered in our development of a life strategy? Considering the duration aspect, our earthly life is but a mere speck–a blip when compared to this potential eternal life. Even if you lived to be 200 years old, that’s less than a rounding error when compared to eternity! Thus, our earthly life is insignificant in terms of time when compared to an eternal life. However, if our earthly life somehow affects our status or outcome for all eternity, every single moment of our lives is important and thus having a proper life strategy to guide our actions becomes extremely important!
Yet, before we accept these statements and begin the serious contemplation of “how we should live our life”, we need to be prudent and scientifically accurate. We’ve made some assumptions and they must be verified. What if these “If statements” are not true? What if there is no God or there is no future eternal life? Such a reality would completely change our strategy and approach for defining a successful life! It would certainly change the “end” to have in mind. More importantly, it would lead to defining different priorities in our life–producing a different cornerstone. So, validating these “If statements” are essential and we’ll discuss the evidence supporting these “Big Ifs” in our next blog. Stay tuned!