Your Accidental Life
The accidental life – most of us live one.
In some ways that is not a negative, after all “that’s life”. It adds to the mystery, the beauty and the flavor of life. The world is no doubt a better place as people ‘accidentally’ arrive in new places, start new jobs, meet new people, discover new problems and solutions. However, in many more other ways it’s a crying shame. So many dreams go unfulfilled. So much talent is wasted away and so many people get to the end of their life feeling like they missed doing something. Going through life without control can be disastrous. While some crash and burn spiraling down to a point of self-destruction it is just as devastating to lose control of one’s life with far less obvious signs. Sometimes this may be near impossible to detect.
Take my own accidental life for example. For the last 20 years or so I have directly been responsible for educating more than a million children throughout the schools and kindergartens of Sydney. I have helped them stay in touch with nature by keeping a link with farm animals that play an important role in our lives. I have employed over one hundred young men and women who have experienced the pleasure of teaching and have learnt to care for thousands of baby farm animals, whilst living in Australia’s largest city. I have created wealth and a tangible asset that has value on its own, regardless of what I now do. Yes, my accidental life gave me success but had I simply drifted on with that life it would have been disastrous. It was essential that I took control of my life by firstly, looking at how I came to that point; and secondly, looking forward to where I now wanted to go with definiteness of purpose. That was the only way I made sure my dreams and passions were given the chance to present themselves.
Unfulfilled dreams and desires have a habit of returning to haunt you, and it is hard to gauge the effect that has on someone’s life, health and happiness.
Selling the business allowed it to go on and continue its wonderful work with all those children and create wealth for the new owner however, had I drifted on without passion over the years it would have suffered and I would have become a broken man. A man with lost dreams.
Making those massive decisions however, is not easy. I had been dodging the hard decision for years. It was only with The 5am Mindset that I gave myself the time, to really understand my accidental life. I finally understood why I had made the decisions in my life that lead me to arriving at the point I found myself. I didn’t I need to over analyze those reasons but felt empowered, gaining closure. More so, exposing my passions and discovering my magnificent obsession allowed me to look forward with renewed energy to make sure I live the rest of my life with definiteness of purpose.
The power of the 5am Mindset comes from having some time in the day when your mind is fresh and you are alone to focus on your own life. Writing your accidental life story is a simple exercise that we rarely get around to doing. It took me over a month to write but when it was done, I was liberated. It is one of the most powerful exercises in personal development that I have ever done in my life. It certainly was the line drawn in the sand, a time for change.
How can you get a head start on the day, on your life?
I want you to quickly write down 2 things in your accidental life that you have drifted into that you now know must be corrected. It might be a job, relationship, poor health, dropping out of college, and so on. Now for each of these 2 things, write down an alternative position you would rather be in, where would you rather be? That dream job, ideal weight or even where you would love to live. Now ask yourself what happened? Be honest……What went wrong? Think about this some more throughout the day because I’m sure there’s more than 2 things, but for now, it’s time to start taking action towards making that correction.