It seems almost everybody has done this at one point in their lives. Picked up a pen, stared at a blank piece of paper and asked themselves “what do I want to do before I die?” I certainly have, a couple times I believe, and usually end up losing the list. Not that it matters much, since my desires and dreams change as I get older. It occurred to me, somewhere in the middle of reading a section of the Bible, skimming through The Essential Gandhi, and reading a chapter in the book Uncommon by Tony Dungy, that what matters more than that list is the “HOW do I want to LIVE before I die?” list. You can accomplish everything you put on your doing list and still live an unsatisfactory life because you failed to define HOW you wanted to live your life. So I made a list. This is how I want to live my life:
- Make love and service of others #1 priority
- Follow God and the dreams he sets within me
- Stand for what’s right, even if alone
- Give best effort without worrying if it results in success or failure
- Jump! Take risks! Be free!
- Be confident in who I am
- Be myself and don’t be concerned with what other people think about me
- Always be honest and act with integrity
- “own” nothing and feel entitled to nothing
- Give freely and happily (see above)
- Be humble
- Hide nothing, be open
I feel like I fall far short on a lot of the things on this list, but that’s not the point. The point is, regardless of what I DO in my life, this is who I want to BE. I think it’s important to keep this in mind so you don’t sacrifice who you want to be for what you want to do.
For when the One Great Scorer comes to write against your name,
he writes not that you won or lost, but how you played the game.
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