The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are. – John Pierpont Morgan
Last year, I visited the Empire State Building in New York City for the first time. It was an hour before closing on a weekday and raining lightly as I arrived. The building was practically empty.
The highest observation point of the Empire State Building is the 102nd floor, which requires taking a separate elevator from the main observation deck. As I stepped out of the elevator, I discovered that while it might be raining at ground level, it was snowing heavily 102 stories up.
I was in my own personal snow globe with the lights of New York City as the back drop. My mind let go of the minutia of day-to-day life and focused on the big picture.
If we don’t continuously refocus our perspective on the big picture, we can be easily caught off guard by regret, looking back at time wasted, passion stifled, youth lost, and children grown.
An extraordinary life is a life defined by you, awake to who you are becoming.
It is comprised of your answers to big scary questions, like:
What kind of person am I, if judged by my actions?
What kind of person do I wish to become?
How do I sabotage myself or my relationships?
In what ways do I conform to values authored by someone other than me?
Am I accountable to my own values, my own outcomes?
If we fail to thoughtfully author our own life, then our life will be defined by others.
Extraordinary isn’t necessarily flashy, expensive, or unique. Extraordinary can range from small moments when we stop to listen to a forest creek to surreal adventures that we once presumed to be out of reach.
We can surprise and delight ourselves with the experiences we can have if we answer the big picture questions and then make the shifts to align each day with what actually resonates with our soul.