The underlying reason everyone comes to coaching revolves around change. Change is the one constant in life but what we pay most attention to are the sudden disruptions or short-term changes where we can immediately observe the results. We pay more attention to the revolution in our lives rather than the evolution. Noticing the slowly manifesting long-term changes over many years happens less frequently. We often only reflect on our longer history when we are reminded how much time has passed since a major life event. There is great benefit in tracking or at least having some awareness of your personal evolution.
Although the disruptive changes that catch us off guard are impossible to ignore we may look back a realise that they didn’t have as big an effect on our lives as we had anticipated. Sometimes they may have been a blessing. Whether it is our health, our mental and emotional development, or our outlook on life, the changes with the most significant impact on us happen slowly over time. What has changed about the way you live, the way you think and the way you see the world? Have you developed good or bad habits? Do you see the world more positively or negatively? Have your relationships improved or become more dysfunctional?
In financial investing trends are a key metric for trying to predict the future performance of markets. Our biggest investment in life is the investment of time but do we reflect on where our current “time investments” are leading us? Looking back ten or even twenty years we may discover how far we have come or realise we are way off track. Is it time to rethink your portfolio of choices you are spending your time on?
The Australian palliative care worker turned author, Bronnie Ware, curated her very popular blog into a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. It is an inspiring and thought-provoking book that surely caused many to reflect on the trajectory of their own lives. Taking advice from those close to death can be a good wake-up call but many will consider the end of their lives far in the future causing them to procrastinate or ignore the trend projected into their future. Where the investment analogy doesn’t work so well is we cannot save up, borrow, or earn back time. Hopefully, it doesn’t take the thought of death to nudge you into considering who you are evolving into or where your path in life could lead.
Reflecting on where your life is heading is not something to obsess over but reflecting on it from time to time can be very beneficial. Just as many scientific models tend to be very inaccurate over time because the smallest miscalculation magnifies as time progresses, so too is it difficult to know where we will be in a decade or more. However, if we see a negative trend has developed we can make a course correction and get things back on track. This can be a change in diet, a change in choices, a change in beliefs, or any other impactful habit in your life. Maybe try letting happiness be the feedback that guides your adjustments in life. If more people used this as a guide the world would likely be a happier place.
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