What if the problem is your checklist?

I spent the first 33 years of my life following someone else’s rules.

I had a clear checklist to follow that would guarantee my success and the life I wanted to lead.

Work hard at school, go to university, get a degree, become qualified and work my away up to partner.

Find a man, get married, buy a house & live happily ever after.

By 33 I worked for one of the largest professional services firm in the world. I was leading a team day to day, was on director track and had been given the nod for partnership.

I had been a home owner for 8 years and married for 6.

My checklist was complete.

So why did my life feel so sh*t?

For a long time I assumed that the issue was me. I wasn’t good enough and wasn’t doing enough.

So I tried harder, worked more, strove for perfection in every aspect of my life and put endless amounts of pressure on myself in the hope that one day it would be just enough to tip the balance and I would get to feel the way I had been promised.

It never once occurred to me that the problem was the checklist.

That perhaps my rules for a happy life weren’t the rules for a happy life I had been given.

I didn’t realise I had a choice about the content of the rules or the boxes on the checklist.

That I could determine what would make me happy and just do that.

That not only was success on my terms possible, achieving it would allow me to experience the feelings I’d always longed for: happiness and contentment.

Which is funny really – happiness was always my goal. Even back then.

If anyone asked me what I wanted I always said “to be happy”. And yet, so much of my life created anything but.

No one told me I had the option of picking happiness without sacrificing the life I wanted.

You no longer have that problem – I have just told you that that choice is yours to make.

Are you going to take it?

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial
Scroll to Top