Six Months to Live

 In his seminar, The Magic of Self-Direction, Brian Tracy asks his audience to write down what they would do if they had six months to live. The caveat being that they would live in perfect health and could do and be whatever they wanted. Being one who loves a good intellectual and moral challenge, I internalized the question in search of my true thoughts, motivations, motives, beliefs, and desires and was quite surprised by my findings.

At first glance the question begs of memorial. Getting affairs in order and determining how one wants to be remembered. What does one want to have read on one's tombstone after one is gone. Surface responses include spending quality time with family and friends and maybe a little bit of traveling to expand one’s appreciation for the magnificence of creation and its creator. These concepts are noble and valuable priorities. However, at second glance, I see with acute awareness the actions of these values in my daily life. I am not one who must be conditioned by imminent death to sort out my priorities. I live them daily. Without family and friends I lack the ability to give and receive love. Without travel I lock myself into stagnant perspectives and spiritually grow dim. Intellectual and physical travel keeps me connected to Divine source. And so I dig a little deeper and examine the two questions Tracy asks earlier the first being to list the five most important values in your life, and the second to write your top three most important goals.

My values are simple. First and foremost I value good health and wellbeing for in all my years of observation and personal experiences I have come to recognize good health as the cornerstone to an active, happy and productive life. That's not to say one’s body cannot be void of limbs and eyesight, speech or manual dexterity in order to be healthy. I have met many who are deaf, blind, missing limbs, and cannot speak yet continue to experience excellent health and live active and productive lives. Health does not always imply the body functioning as a complete whole, but rather the thoughts that dictate the actions of whatever body there is. Thus a man can have perfect sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell and still not be healthy because of chronic negative thinking that mars his ability to rise above his base desires of greed, envy, jealousy and *****. Health is more than the food we eat or how we move our bodies. Health and wellbeing begins with the current state of our everyday thoughts. Chronic negative thoughts, though not always conscious, in time produce ill health, which is why laughter and good thoughts have been proven to cure some of the most devastating diseases.

Secondly, the need to produce something of great value and that will survive me long after I am gone has directed much of my time and energy into the establishment of a home-based business including writing, workshops and seminars, public speaking, and inspirational leadership. The value I place on this dream is immeasurable and has consumed decades of honing the necessary skills to its achievement.

Thirdly, family and friends have and always will be the inspirations from which I gather information to help improve the world and myself. Without inspiration derived from love I am nothing.

Fourthly, what once began as a grade school public speaking project has long since transmuted into a life-long passionate love affair. Writing is not just an expression but is the making of significant impressions upon the minds of women and men.

Finally, ask anyone who knows me well and you’ll probably hear, “She talks too much. She asks too many questions. She’s a gatherer of information.” Life-long learning is essential to my overall health and wellbeing. It is the fuel for my writing and the stuff of which I share with family and friends. It is the raw material from which I build my empire.

Goals are significantly different from values yet are driven by those things we value most. My goals are simple. After decades of honing my skills as a writer I am now prepared to take that leap of faith and earn money doing what I love. It is my goal not only to earn money from writing but also to produce a masterful work of art each time.

My first goal will include using some of the money I earn from writing to purchase or building my dream home. Ever since I can remember I have always wanted to live in a mostly glass house, somewhere warm and either close to an ocean or near to a vast lake. Even as a child I dreamed at night of such things. I love and respect the necessity of walls to protect me from the elements, but despise the feeling of being hemmed in. Glass walls offer a gentle form of protection while allowing transparency of all that lies within. I have no secrets. I despise secrets. Secrets merely serve to produce fears, which in turn destroys trust, honesty, love and compassion. My life is an open book. My home will reflect this.

One of the first things I did when moving into my current home, was to create a large square hole in one of the two kitchen walls. The other wall already contains a squared framed hole. My need to see and converse with my husband and daughter from the kitchen while they sat in the living room was paramount, as is my perpetual need to be in constant contact with the world around me. I would have preferred to create a pony or half wall but was constrained by the constructional limitations of support beams. Just as well. Had I of been able to create my ideal internal environment I would have merely prolonged the need to rid myself of external concrete walls and may have taken another 10 or 20 years to manifest my dream home.

What I find most interesting about my need for a glass house lies in my knowing that that which is internal must be manifest without. Thus after having spent a lifetime stripping away layers of lies and internal deceptions built upon faulty belief systems, I am ready to expose myself to the world and am equally ready to see the world through the filter of new beliefs.

Less than a month ago I thought dissatisfaction was a bad thing. I equated it to unbridled desire, avarice, and selfishness. Yet I now see how the seeds of dissatisfaction serve to launch me to greatness by revealing values and needs that have long since been buried living out of sight. Restlessness, dissatisfaction, and boredom are indications of the need for change. I am most ready to create and be impacted by the creation of change.

My second most important goal is to create a financial security that will extend a lifetime and can and will be filtered down to subsequent generations. I am so finished with creating financial security for the moment. I want more. I deserve better. I need something greater. Part of the problems I have encountered in the past 30 years stems from my unwillingness to surrender my power and control to incompetent others. I take great pride in my efficiency and problem finding and solving skills. I am highly organized, deeply investigative, fearlessly intuitive, and competently delegating. I surround myself with competent people of varied talents and skills and know exactly who to turn to for support, advice, guidance, and insight. I deeply value and respect my family and friends who are the primary source of this knowledge.

Authority and ownership of what I do and how I spend my time is my third goal. To create a financial security that will extend a lifetime must include full ownership and authority hence my need for a home-based business consisting of writing, workshops, seminars, public speaking, and inspirational leadership. Ownership and authority create certain freedoms unrecognizable to pre-established businesses. For the past two years I wake when I want to. Sleep when I’m tired. Work mostly in my pajamas. And most importantly, work when I want to and not when I’m told when to.

I knew from the moment I began to study time in grade two that time would pose a problem for me. Not in the sense of the natural rhythm of things but in man’s incessant need to control and measure it. My value does not extend to the movement of the clock, nor is it defined by it. And I argue with Jim Rohn when he says, “You don’t get paid for the hour; you get paid for the value you bring to the hour” for I believe time has nothing to do with value nor does value have anything to do with the hour. Value has to do with value in the sense of those things that are most important to you. Tiny snippets of time spent in the company of those I hold so dear to me cannot be measured. I conclude the value of a dollar does not always equal the value of time for oftentimes value is immeasurable and infinite. But that’s not to say I completely dismiss Rohn’s aforementioned statement for I know full well he speaks of the dictation of one’s wages according to the calculations of measured time in proportion of how what you offer adds value to the lives of others.

And so I return to the original question. What would I do if I only had six months to live? Without batting an eye I firmly resound with great certainty and knowing: I would pour all my time and energy into manifesting my heart’s desire. And in between I would, as I always do, take time out to indulge myself in the love and inspiration of friends and family and would return the love gladly, willingly, and without second thought. A life lived well is that life which allows itself to live to its greatest potential and magnificence. Personally I have yet to see in myself what that is. Yet to live out my greatest potential, to be all I can be, to be nothing less than magnificent as I was created magnificent by the most magnificent creator, that is my heart’s greatest desire. That is my birthright and that is your birthright too should you choose to claim it. And in doing so, once claimed and given it’s proper dedication, the ownership and daily exercise of magnificence is the single most-highest praise one can give to self and Divine source. Anything less is death. May we all rest in the peace of our true magnificence.