Those of you who know me well have to be thinking about me and music, but that is not exactly what I am speaking to today. Instead, I’m asking what are the things you like to do that drive you, bring you joy and keep you centered? For me music is definitely high on the list, as is hiking and travel. I also like to combine these activities with my family and friends. By doing so, I create a flow in my life where I believe I end up in a work hard-play hard existence allowing me to live life to its fullest in each moment.
This doesn’t mean in each moment I feel that I’m living life to its fullest. It’s a combination of all of these things, including the high highs and low lows, which allow it to happen. There a good moments and there are bad moments personally and professionally. Together, they make up the fabric of your day, your month, your year.
During the pandemic many people made significant changes to their life voluntarily or involuntarily. For each person who discovered the ability to live somewhere else while working remotely, someone else lost their job or business. Even when changes are not voluntary, there are silver linings, though they may not always be obvious until you look for them or they find you. The first step is to try to be self-aware enough to understand what gives you your rhythm or roll. The answer(s) to this can help you through difficult times and to embrace the good times.
I’ve had people ask me how to do this. The question is it depends on you. Do you need to meditate and clear your mind to find what’s important to you or drives you? Do you need to sit and think with your favorite music on the background nursing a cup of coffee? Do you need to journal and get your thoughts out in that manner? Part of what’s interesting to me in this process is we all approach it differently with the same opportunity for success.
However you approach defining your soundtrack, it’s an investment in yourself. Given my line of work and the fact that I bill every six minutes of my day long ago taught me the value of time. There is a cost in time to any activity you choose and the choice is not always obvious.
What if I told you at the end of a long day I was deciding between sitting down and playing a video game or going on a hike? Most of you who know me will think my choice would be to hike. What if I reframe the options and they are to sit down and play a video game with my son or hike? Then the choice may be less obvious. In either scenario, I have the ability to choose what is important to me in the moment and move forward accordingly.
I challenge you to, in whatever manner works for you, take the time define the soundtrack of your life. Sometimes the soundtrack is altered by you. Sometimes by others. But once you figure it out it is much easier to get back on track and do the things that make life meaningful to you. And, of course, there are rewards to those who spend time jamming to their soundtrack for even a few short minutes a day instead of blindly stumbling one step after the other. I challenge you to find your soundtrack, your rhythm, and follow the path.
