Alice said to the proverbial Cheshire Cat,
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go
from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get
to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where—" said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.
-- Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland
The first thing we do when we decide to go on
vacation is determine the destination. If you don’t
know where you are going, it’s very hard to plan
anything else – like how much money you need or what
clothes to bring or what maps to read. We nearly
always decide where we plan to go. That doesn’t
mean that side trips are not possible, but for those
interesting diversions to qualify as side trips,
they have to be “aside” some route.
If you don’t know where you’re going, how will
you know when you get there?
And yet, most people live their lives with no
destination in mind. We are buffeted by winds that
take us from one job to the next, very often
reaching middle-age and wondering what happened to
the plans we had in our youth.
As management guru Stephen Covey says “Begin with
the end in mind.” If you can start to envision what
your future can be, you have made an important step
toward living the A+ Life. To do this also requires
that you have to stop seeing yourself as a victim of
the circumstances around you, powerless to change
anything. You have to accept that there is the
possibility of a better life. You may also have to
accept that getting there may take a long time, but
that it will be worth it.
What do you want people to say about you when you
have passed from this life? How do you want to be
remembered? Let’s assume for a minute that you have
control over your entire life, that you can direct
yourself to any future you want. What would that
future look like? At the end of your life, what
regrets will you have if you don’t accomplish what
you want?
If you have what you need to become what you
want, what will you be?
There’s a saying that no one gets to their deathbed
and wishes that they had spent more time working and
less time with friends and family. I think that’s
true, but I also know that most of us have a
“project” inside of us that if we don’t get it done
by the time we leave, we’ll be very disappointed.
What is that “project” for you? If you know there
is something, but you don’t know what it is, don’t
worry. For now, just try to imagine how you want
people to describe you. In a perfect world, if
nothing held you back from being the person you want
to be, if money and education and experience were
not an issue, how would your life look?
Living the A+ Life requires living a life with no
regrets. When you come to the end, will you be able
to look back with satisfaction at what you achieved?
Do this exercise. Imagine you are coming to the end
of your life and you are looking back. Write down
what you want said about you? Make a list of what
you want those left behind to remember about you.
Then, start designing your legacy.
