On Individual Sustainability: Building Towards The Life You Want

Last week, I wrote in more detail about Individual Sustainability and how getting our current priorities straight (then actioning them) is a key component of getting our immediate lives in order.

The other part, knowing what kind of life you want, is arguably more critical as it’s a key part of the foundation from which we operate and informs the goals we set.  It determines direction a la a North Star.

Clarity on what you’re building towards allows us to make decisions for the short term and plans for the long term that set us up to progress towards what we ultimately want.  It helps us determine which targets to aim for so we can chart a path to get there.  

It grounds our decision making and gives us a baseline from which to think, but it also serves as a filter when we’re determining our strategy.

But knowing what we want doesn’t just happen in the background while we go about our lives.  It requires our attention.  It requires our reflection.  It requires our time.

It requires us to ask questions like...

Why do I exist?  

What am I here to do?

What impact do I want to have?  

What value can I create?

How can I help others?

What does my ideal life look like?

And it requires us to answer them.  Not just once where we set it and forget it.  But over and over again.  

Because as we evolve, what we want will evolve as well.  If we don't continue to tune in, it’s easy to end up in a place where we feel like we’ve gone off course because we never set the course.  

Sometimes, we may not realize we’re off course until we’re pretty far down the line.  But we can always reset our direction if we give ourselves permission to do so.

There’s no right answer to any of these questions, which can make them a lot harder to tackle.  Especially when life seems fine and the effort to change it feels daunting.

But I imagine none of us would answer How do you want your life to feel? with “fine.”  At least not as a constant state.  And I don’t mean the dictionary definition, e.g. a fine wine, but rather that fine we say when we don’t have a better word for things being blah.  

We demand vision and purpose from the companies we work for and buy from so, why not demand the same of ourselves? 

If I asked you to write a mission statement for yourself as CEO of You, Inc., what would you write?

It’s not an easy exercise.  It can take companies weeks, months, and sometimes years to sharpen it.  Capturing a simple idea, clearly and succinctly is hard work.  This is why agencies are paid millions of dollars to deliver a few choice words in a carefully crafted order that can take months to land.  

But the first draft needs to be written to get to the final.  Except in the case of our lives, we don’t have to land a final draft.  It’s a living, breathing statement that goes on as long as we do and can be edited as we learn more about ourselves and the world.  It’s not something we’d change everyday, but it’s also not set in stone.  

It’s merely a guide.  But as the guide of our lives, it’s a pretty damn important one.  

And as the captain of your own life, if you don’t know where you want to go how are you charting your course?

🙏🙏,

Pam