The Best Life!
I recently joined the network of someone whose LinkedIn status boldly announced to the world that they were “Living their best life”! Something about this announcement immediately got my attention. Actually, it triggered my outside voice with my ego shouting, “BULLSHIT! No one is living their best life with everything going on in the world” to which something deeper whispered, “are they?” With the next logical question being “are you?” .... This ponderance led to a multitude of conversations with friends, family, and coaching clients. ‘Best Life’ being my theme of the week, as I gathered intel and considered the possibility of this statement.
Typical comments received from friends included:
I am not sure I will get there until retirement
Maybe this person does not know what is going on in the world?
I guess I am…. Hummm. Am I?
This question invited me to take a 20,000-foot view of my life. Seeing it objectively, while inviting in the possibility that maybe this is the best. I live in a comfortable house with an amazing partner, I have the opportunity to chase my dreams, and friends that love me enough to listen to me lament about some stranger on LinkedIn and their ‘Best Life’. What more can a girl ask for?
I finally got up the nerve to contact the ‘Best Life’ person and demand some answers. By this point my ego had shifted from “Hey what gives”? to a softer, (possibly just as creepy coming from a stranger) “Hi, I am Kim, can you explain the origins of this statement”.
Their thoughtful response reminded me what was missing from my lament, as they shared that “living their best life means being conscientious, compassionate, and using the gifts they have been bestowed to help others”. When I parallel this response to the call of this moment, it becomes clear that perhaps the most loving thing we can do for the world and others is not to deny our happiness but to reach for and live our best life. As eloquently put by Ben Carson “Happiness doesn’t result from what we get, but what we give.”
After much thought I have reached the conclusion that if I wait for world peace, social equality, a cure for Covid, and the transition to a green economy to start living my ‘Best Life’, I might be waiting forever. The truth is, my best life is now, with all its warts, what if’s, and ‘some days’. The second truth is that life has shown me again and again, that the sweetness I crave does not live at the top of the ‘Kim Success Ladder’, but rather by consciously directing my actions towards creating a world that is greener, kinder, and where others also have the opportunity to reach for and live their best life.
How close are you to your version of ‘The Best’?