An Extraordinary Life

My dear friend Diane wrote me a question about my latest blog post. She asked me why I wanted to have an extraordinary life?

I guess the answer to that is multi-faceted. The first thing that comes to mind is, "I'm not really sure...I've always wanted an extraordinary life." I've always felt like I was put on the Earth to do big things and have pushed myself to learn and grow and develop myself as much as I could so that I can do big things.

But digging deeper I realise that I feel very much like my friend Sally. Sally is 23 and has just graduated from University. She, by her own accounts, has lived a very sheltered life. Then last year she went to Burma. Now, Sally has seen third world countries before and the experience has never affected her like Burma. Maybe it was her age; she was now mature enough to look outside herself, maybe it was the fact that she's part Burmese and still has relatives there. But all of a sudden she was looking at the world with new eyes. And she saw how other people lived. A lot of other people, all over the planet. All of a sudden she became acutely aware of how much needs to be done on this Earth. And since she returned from Burma she's been on a one woman mission to solve the world's problems. All of them. Tomorrow. (Ah to be young again!) :)

But seriously, Sally is remarkable and someone I admire greatly.

I practiced some of my new NLP skills on Sally last night to help her with some goals she wants to achieve around health and fitness. When I asked her why she wants to achieve them she said (and I'm paraphrasing here), because she wants the energy to do all of the things she needs to do to save the world. I asked her why that was important and she said that she believed you were given this life as a gift and that if you didn't use it to help others you were just taking up space (again my paraphrasing).

I realised that I feel exactly the same way.

However, having a good 25 years and several hundred, if not thousand hours of personal development work under my belt, I would go on to say that it's my personal belief that everyone actually feels the way Sally does. Everyone wants to help others. Everyone wants to make a difference.

But not everyone knows that they have the tools to do so. Many of us get stuck using tools and strategies that don't serve us because of some decisions we've made (sometimes about ourselves, sometimes others) about what's happened to us in the past.

Now, I'm not saying that everyone wants to or should be on a one wo(man) mission to save the world... Some people have big goals, some small. But I do think that everyone, deep down in their heart, wants to make a difference.

So why do I want to live an extraordinary life? Because I believe I can a difference. But I'm not on a one woman mission to save the world. I'm on a multiple person mission. I believe that I have some tools that can help unlock latent potential in others. I believe that I can help people adopt more resourceful strategies that will serve them and help them serve others. I believe that my purpose on this planet, during this lifetime, is to play a small part in activating a critical mass of people that are living their dreams and caring about what happens in this world. This critical mass of people will then change the course that we are currently on and will preserve our planet for generations to come. But in order to help people live up to their own potential I have to live up to mine, every day. I believe I can be an example of what's possible.

I think each of us have the responsibility to do the best with what we have. I've been blessed. I've been given a lot. As such, much should be asked from me and I'm trying to give it. Every day in every way.

And if I can do that it will be a life well lived.

So thank you Diane, my great friend, for asking me that question. And as we both know, that is your gift. The gift of asking great questions and getting people to think deeply about them.