The following is adapted from Stop Chasing Squirrels.
I work with high achievers who get things done. My goal is to help them find their purposes in life ― to discover their reasons for being on this planet so they can go after them with all their hearts, minds, and souls. Finding and fulfilling your purpose is all about reducing what is weighing down your life and getting down to what really counts ― the essentials of life.
Getting to that point is a function of time. It cannot be completed in a weekend seminar. Even if you may already have a good idea of your life’s purpose, it will evolve, solidify, and become more focused over time. It is important to realize we are talking about a lifelong process.
To reach your desired destination, you will need passion and confidence over time. That is the basic equation. However, you will also need a little more than that. You will need to do a little sculpting of your life. Below, we will examine six essentials of life that will provide powerful assistance. Focusing on these will help you chip away at everything keeping you from being successful.
1. Mind
The brain is a perpetual motion machine. It never stops, even while you are sleeping. Everything involves thought. If your spouse says, “Let’s decide about dinner,” you quickly guide your thoughts in that direction, pull some mental files, and cogitate on what you would like to do for dinner. You are operating the controls in your mind.
But what about those moments when you are driving, or daydreaming, or sitting in a waiting room, and your thoughts seem to drift here and there on their own? It turns out your mind has a mind of its own!
Still, you can harness the direction of your thinking. Take control of your conscious thought so that your body’s mission control center will work more toward the goal of life purpose, rather than random or disorganized thinking.
2. Body
If the mind is mission control, the body is the vessel that carries out its instructions. Our human anatomy may be a bit less mysterious than the mind, but it is just as complex. In fact, it is the most wonderful machine in the history of earth, and because we live within that machine, we often take it for granted.
What if you received a brand new Bugatti La Voiture Noire as a gift, the world’s most expensive automobile at more than $18 million? Would you take special care with it, or neglect its engine, its perfect paint, and its lovely interior, and treat it like a lemon from the used car lot?
The body deserves reverent care. It has no price tag, because without it, you are not even here. When we get to this chapter, we will look at some highly practical, even pleasant ways to maintain the machine that will determine just how successful and comfortable your life can be.
3. Soul
Did we agree that the mind is mysterious? How about the soul? With some people, its very existence is in dispute. Is the human soul a thing? If so, where is it located? What exactly does it “do?” And does it continue to exist once bodily life ends?
It is also a difficult topic for discussion, because many of us have our own religious ideas of what the soul might — or might not — be. None of this constitutes the discussion we want to have, however. Our interest is in the generally accepted idea that we each have a kind of essence, a unique identity that transcends all the rest of our faculties.
My opinion is that in today’s very busy, very materially driven world, the soul is the easiest part of us to neglect. Yet if it is the expression of who we truly are, as opposed to all other people on this planet, we need to be in touch with the soul. We need to nurture it. That need not be exclusively a religious expression.
4. Nutrition
From our earliest years of life, we are told to eat right. That message begins with our parents, then in school we are taught the idea of a balanced meal. It can all become caught up in guilt, evidenced by the way we speak of “comfort food” and use eating as some kind of emotional crutch. Yet all the while, we know that food is fuel. If you owned the world’s finest automobile, would you fill it with cheap gas?
Leaving the idea of purpose completely aside, we can agree that at the very least, we want to live longer and be healthier. We certainly do not want heart disease or the problems that come with obesity. So the reasons for good nutrition are baked in, so to speak.
But even more, as we begin to view ourselves as people on a mission — people out to achieve something exciting and important to us ― we want all the time and all the health available to us. If we can be active and fruitful at seventy or eighty, we want that opportunity. Moreover, we are so much more likely to get it if we have eaten the right way all along the road to that purpose.
5. Money
Money can come and go in the matter of an instant, yet it provides our score keeping in this world. Whether or not we feel it should do so, it is the popular perception that finance guides modern life, and that he who has the gold makes the rules.
Once again, of course, we detect the overlap with the other essentials of life. Can we think clearly and make the best plans when we are anxious about our finances? Do we have the full ability to care for our bodies and perhaps work out at the gym if we are flat broke? It is also clear that the soul guides our relationship with money and pollutes it as well.
We earn money, we spend money, and we save money. The rules seem simple. Therefore, why is it that so few people master their financial situations? What money actually does is provide options. To get where we want to go, we will need to be well financed. Without the financial foundation, we will be caught in the cycle of paying bills and simply scrambling to stay afloat.
6. Relationships
If you think about it, we have discussed five very personal, very individual essentials of life: the mind, body, and soul that only you have; your personal finances; and what you, and no one but you, will eat. The final essential, however, pulls back the curtain and involves others. We are talking about your relationships.
The many go-getters I know are self-starters. They compete with themselves, motivated by their own goals rather than any desires to keep up with someone else. Yet none of them are lone rangers. They have not reached their level of achievement without understanding their need for others.
We know all this, of course, but we often take it for granted. We neglect those closest to us as we become wrapped up in our various pursuits. Working well with others is no easy task, and healthy, positive relationships are not optional.
The Essentials of Life Are Related
Each of these six essentials of life must be addressed specifically and consistently. However, the beautiful thing is that as you polish one, the others are also more likely to shine. For example, when we care for the body, we think more clearly. When we eat better, the body is at its best. Strong personal relationships are good for the soul, and so on.
For each of us, there will be strong areas and more problematic ones. Reflect on where you stand with each essential, and consider some practical ways you can grow in each area.
If you continue to sharpen your mind, care for your body, deepen your soul, improve your nutrition, master your money, and strengthen your relationships, not only will you create the optimal conditions to manifest your purpose — you’ll simply become an incredibly impressive human specimen! That is no shabby goal in itself.
For more advice on the essentials of life, you can find Stop Chasing Squirrels on Amazon.
