The habit of asking yourself, “Is this all I want?”

I’m reading Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom.  It’s one of those books that I picked up years ago, meaning to get around to it but never did.  Now I see what the buzz was all about because when I finish every little chapter I want to bookmark the golden nugget I just found.  This morning I felt I had to share this one:

     …”It’s what everyone worries about, isn’t it?  What if today were my last day on earth?”  He studied my face, and perhaps he saw an ambivalence about my own choices.  I had this vision of me keeling over at my desk one day, halfway through a story, my editors snatching the copy even as the medics carried my body away.
     … “Mitch,” he [Morrie, who is beset with the fatal Lou Gehrig’s disease] said, “the culture doesn’t encourage you to think about such things until you’re about to die.  We’re so wrapped up with egotistical things, career, family, having enough money, meeting the mortgage, getting a new car, fixing the radiator when it breaks–we’re involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going.  So we don’t get into the habit of standing back and looking at our lives and saying.  Is this all?  Is this all I want?  Is something missing?”
     He paused.
     “You need someone to probe you in that direction.  It won’t just happen automatically.”
     I knew what he was saying.  We all need teachers in our lives.
     And mine was sitting in front of me.

And mine are all around me.  I am very aware that everyone and every situation are the teachers in my life.  Because of them, I do make the time to stand back and look at my life.  I constantly challenge myself to answer the question: “Is this all I want?”

Oh sure, I get hooked.  Sometimes I have those downward-spiralling moments when I’m wrapped up with the egotistical things Morrie mentions.  But like I said, my teachers “probe me,” and I make the space and time for personal retreats and reflection… and then I take whatever actions I’m called to do.  In doing so, I chose to be a conscious co-creator of my life with the intention of having no regrets.

That being said, after taking my customary end-of-year personal retreat time, I’m ready for 2011 – I’m ready to receive the abundance of the new year!  Let’s go!

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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