How do you measure the degree to which you are living the good life?
- Wealth?
- Health?
- Comfort?
- Material items?
Lately I have been measuring mine by answering the following question:
“Did I make a difference to someone’s day today?”
If I can answer this with “yes”, then I am living the good life.
Somedays the answer might be a very small yes, others it might be a BIG, often tiring and longwinded journey to YES!
It provides a very simple focus to the day, moment by moment. I can pretty much always find a way to make a difference even if it is just a smile, or listening, I mean REALLY listening to someone’s problem.
Of course there are other elements to answering with a yes such as taking time for myself so that I am energised enough to give to others.
Somedays the yes might have been for myself – did I change something that positively impacted my own life. Did I make a difference to myself by eating well, breathing slow and stretching out?
If I want to feel good, at the end of the day I review the ways I have made a difference today and then the next day look for opportunities to do more of the same.
How did you make a difference today?
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Today I made a difference by “listening” to my co-worker while she told me about how she was upset because her daughter acts out in school and they have tried everything to correct her behavior. My co-worker felt frustrated and needed someone to talk to. (I put listening in quotes because it was through instant messenger. We used to work together physically in an office in downtown Chicago, but now we both work from home – her from Florida and myself from a suburb of Chicago).
I’m really enjoying your blog. Reading it is addicting 🙂 It’s like how I feel when reading Ev Bogue’s blog or Gwen Bell – though you have your own individual voice.
I’m also impressed that you started your own paid letter.
I also am inspired by Ev Bogue to start a new blog where I write every day without worrying about themes and categories – just write what I feel passionate about, and create a paid letter – but I need to get over my resistance – like who would want to read (and pay to read) me just talk about what I’m learning or thinking?
But, when I look at my current blogs, I feel like I’m outgrowing them, because they seem too commercial – they each are about a subject (like programming, or stock trading). Even my Tao of simplicity blog feels like I restricted myself. When I read back on it, the posts I most admire are the ones where I just wrote from experience about what I felt like writing.
So, I hope you keep up with your blog. I’m going to subscribe to your free daily letter.