What matters?

When you’re high-fiving yourself for being pretty healthy and germ-free all year and then a ridiculous virus hits you right out of the stadium, sending you into a morphine-induced haze for a few days, you are forced to stop.  Your body is forced to stop.  Your mind is forced to stop.  Your list of things to do is forced to stop.  For some (read “me”), this unplanned, forced stop is not easy at all.  In fact, it is actually quite frustrating.  But, in my effort to embrace what each day brings, I tried to find the silver lining.  I tried to use this stop to rest, to reflect, to refocus. These moments in our lives when the choice to move, to keep going, to keep doing, is taken away from us are put in our path for a reason.  Sometimes we lose focus of the big picture because we’re so focused on the here and now.  We lose focus of what really matters to us because it has become so blurred by what matters to everyone else.  Two mind shifts happened for me in the past couple of weeks.  Not shifts in totally new directions, just gentle shifts back to my centre.  A shift to realign with those things that really matter to me and a shift towards a far greater awareness of gratitude. For each of us, what really matters will be totally different, and that’s the special ingredient that makes you, you.  One thing is not better than the other and there is no right or wrong.  What’s important is that you are crystal clear on what matters to YOU.  You see, if you’re not clear on this, then you have no compass to direct you.  You have nothing to guide and shape the decisions you make.  Without knowing what really matters to you, you will end up floating aimlessly through life without purpose, without intention, without a reason to get up in the mornings. I can already hear some of you asking, ‘how do I know what really matters to me?’  Well, how about starting here – consider these questions: What do I want to be remembered for one day when I’m no longer walking this earth?  What legacy do I want to leave here?  What makes me truly, heart-bursting happy?  What are my values? What is my mission? What is the vision I have for your life? Some of the things that really matter to me are my faith, the health of my marriage, the hearts of my kids, being able to help others learn and grow from what I’ve learnt from my mistakes and what I’ve experienced in life and being able to build a career on the foundation of the education I was blessed to receive. One thing you should know as you set out to discover what really matters to you is that this may change as you move through different seasons of your life.  That is a good thing.  Your perspective may change as your kids get older, your priorities may change as you get married, change jobs, progress in years.  That is ok.  For now, in this season, give yourself the time and space to figure out your answers to the questions above.  Give yourself the gift of being able to live a life that is centred around what makes you happy, a life that is invested in what really matters to you.