Don’t Lose Sight Of What Matters Most

Before you start reading this post, I want you to STOP and mentally list a few things in life that matter the most to you.

Go on, do it now…

…The reason why I made you do this is because our ‘rat-race’ world has the tendency of making us lose sight of what’s really important in our lives, the only things that really matter.

You get conditioned to believe that money is important, that your career or your business is important, that your house or your car is important in your life. But none of these things really matter in life, because the things that matter most in life can’t be priced.

Ask any person who’s had a gun pointed to their head, ask anyone who’s survived a serious car crash or ask someone who’s had a near-death experience. Ask them what matters most in life.

99% Of them will tell you that the things that matter most in life are family, friends, love, time, health and freedom.

It’s sad that it often takes a near-death experience for us to realize what’s really important in our lives, yet that’s the truth for most people (I’ve been guilty of this too).

It’s so easy to get caught up in your job, your career, your personal desires for money, cars, houses and other material possessions.

But when you die, are any of these things important?

Can you take your money, your cars or your houses with you when your time is up?

What You Cannot Change

Fact: You’re here in this world and you have a life to live.

This is something that you had no control over, and it’s something that you have to make the best of. If you’re lucky and all goes well, it’s safe to say that, from the day you were born, you have about 80 years to live.

In the grand scheme of things in our universe, nothing you do really matters. You are just one of the 7 billion odd people on one planet in an endlessly gigantic universe. At some point our sun will burn out and everything you’ve done in your life, every legacy you’ve left behind, everyone you know… will vanish.

So what does that mean?

It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t care about anything and neither does it mean you should live each day like it’s your last.

You have to take control of your life and live it in such a way that you appreciate every day that you’re alive. You should strive to spend as much time with the people you love, with the people who mean the world to you. You should strive to be honest, help others, work in such a way that you do what you love doing. And you should strive to leave the world in a better way than you found it.

Money Is Important – But For A Different Reason

I mentioned that money is not among the things that matter most in life, money is definitely important.

Although it sounds like I’m contradicting myself, I’m not and I’ll explain why.

The reason that money is important is because it allows you the freedom to spend time with the people who really matter. If you have enough money then you can have your partner not need to work to help pay the bills. Enough money allows you to pursue your own hobbies and business ventures so that if you wish, you could work from home on your own terms.

Enough money allows you to move to a safe location if that’s what you need to do. It allows you to buy healthy food so that you’ll be able to live longer and healthier and have more time to spend with the ones you love. Enough money can buy education for the people you care about so that they’ll be better off too.

But notice how I say enough money and not just money.

You don’t need to have a million dollars in the bank to be able to spend your days with the ones you love. You don’t need Ferrari’s, mansions on the beach or private jets. You just need enough money.

I know that for some people it’s a personal goal to make a ton of money, to become really rich so that they can buy all the things they never had. And that’s okay… as long as it doesn’t mean that you need to sacrifice spending time with the ones you love to be able to make that money.

Don’t let money become your main focus in life. Let money be a means to have the freedom and time to spend with the people you love and doing things that you love doing.

Don’t Lose Sight of What Matters Most

At the very start of this post I asked you to mentally list a few of the most important things to you in life. I truly hope that you thought about friends, family, love, happiness, health or freedom. But if not, don’t worry. It’s not too late to change your mindset.

Try to spend more time with the people you care about, and try to spend more time doing the things you enjoy doing. Especially now over the festive season, forget about work, money and chasing status for a bit. Enjoy life, love and friendship. Share good food together with the people you care about. Go away for a few days.

And after the festive season passes, don’t lose sight of what matters most. Try to remember at all times what is important in your life because when your time in this world is up, I want you to be able to look back on your life without regrets, knowing that you spent as much time as you could with the people you care about and doing the things you enjoy doing.

Be Grateful For What You Have

A simple habit you can adopt to remind yourself of what matters most in life is to, every night before you go to bed, mentally list all the things in your life that you’re grateful for.

It’ll take you a minute or two at most.

For example:
I’m grateful for the roof above my head, the bed in which I sleep, not having to worry about my safety, being in good health, my family, friends, partner and the opportunity to wake up tomorrow and work towards my goals.

I’ve been doing this for some time now and not only does it help to remind me of what’s really important to me in life, it also helps me get through difficult times more easily.

When things aren’t going my way and I’m facing obstacles or failure, I can turn to all the things that I’m grateful for in my life and it puts the setbacks and failures in perspective (they’re not that bad).

Happy holidays everyone!