Devotion
Centering . . .
And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
(Raymond Carver, “Late Fragment.” A New Path to the Waterfall,. Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989.)
Ponder . . .
At first, it seems as though the things you declare, espouse and promise matter a lot. And they do.
For a while.
But in the end, we will judge you on what you do. When the gap between what you say and what you do gets big enough, people stop listening.
The compromises we make, the clients we take on, the things we do when we think no one is watching… this is how people measure us.
It seems as though the amount of time it takes for the gap to catch up with marketers/leaders/humans is getting shorter and shorter.
(Seth Godin, “The Saying/Doing Gap,” June 19, 2016)
Remember . . .
So these are the five essential questions.
“Wait, what” is at the root of all understanding.
“I wonder” is at the heart of all curiosity.
“Couldn’t we at least” is the beginning of all progress.
“How can I help” is at the base of all good relationships.
And “what really matters” gets you to the heart of life.
If you ask these questions regularly, especially the last one, you will be in a great position to answer the bonus question, which is, at the end of the day, the most important question you’ll ever face.
“And did you get what you wanted out of life, even so?”