For list lovers everywhere, here’s another you can play with……
I recently asked a group of entrepreneurial women, whether they were surprised by a statistic that highlighted our gender to be less happy now than they were 40 years ago. Sadly, they were not surprised, in fact they wore that knowledge every day and even though they knew what it was that filled them with joy, made them feel alive and flowing with vitality, it just wasn’t a priority to them.
So we discussed what might be done to change it. Richard Branson wrote “Don’t forget the to-do list, but remember the to-be list too.” So many of these women keenly agreed, they loved a To-Do list but when faced with the prospect of making a To Be list they were much more challenged to know what to put there or how to get those boxes ticked.
We exist in a time of invention and growth (the statistic above was compiled from over 6 worldwide studies and included multiple demographics, degrees of wealth and different dynamics in terms of marital or parental status) and yet we appear to have forgotten how critical it is to have our basic needs met. Needs that get us to ok, needs that are the building blocks of our happiness.
We are time poor and starving ourselves of happiness but would a To Be list, really be enough to fix it? I believe its an important place to start.
You can find many sources of information regarding wellbeing, it’s a popular word in the world of self-development/improvement but when did you consciously contemplate wellbeing in terms of whether our being is well or that we are being well, They are one and the same so to create a To Be list might just be fundamental to our ability to thrive and critical for our wellbeing.
Next time you sit down to write your To Do list, maybe you could also create a To Be list and get to work ticking those boxes first?
If it’s a challenge, go back to basics, be happy, be loved, be connected, be healthy, be wealthy, be wise – oh and be brave!
