I was having dinner a few nights ago with a dear friend...
He is in the engineering and construction space, and is one of the most intelligent, sensitive, capable, thoughtful people that I have ever met. His energy and his heart are boundless. He is wildly successful at what he does. And...
And, I feel his very heavy disharmony.
We had a great long conversation about life... and tears flowed meaningfully and frequently. He is a strong and powerful man. And, he is so very human.
As we talked, I thought to myself... he has "everything"... financial independence, a beautiful family, amazing health, a gorgeous home, a dependable job...
And, I realized. We ALL NEED A CONSTRUCT. That word seemed so appropriate.
A CONSTRUCT...
to build our life meaningfully from its many amazing components.
A CONSTRUCT...
to give us an approach to solving life's problems.
A CONSTRUCT...
to help us prioritize and focus on what matters.
A CONSTRUCT...
to enable us to make sense of the past and engage in the future effectively.
A CONSTRUCT...
to weave all aspects in our mind into a comforting quilt, into a launching pad...
Without a CONSTRUCT of some type, we float, we jump from concern to concern, from regret to reward, from work to family, from wishing to wanting... at random, or at least WITHOUT a deliberate plan of how to THINK about those things, how to tie them together, how to squeeze the joy out of them....
I imagine a man stranded on a desert island surrounded by coconuts and pineapples... but not able to open them to enjoy their deliciousness...
HARMONY is my CONSTRUCT...
And, it makes up for all the power I don't have, for all of the things in my life that don't go right, for all the things I am not good at...
My devotion to the concept of THINKING.... or being deliberate in MY THOUGHTS and thus MY ACTIONS... is my greatest gift, and my greatest strength.
And, importantly, as part of that is my constant attempt to understand, accept, and leverage that line between the things I can control from the things I can't...
There are many paths to a meaningful life... a joyful life... but none that I can see without some construct... and, you can have more than one.
I realize that the more you achieve in life, the longer you live, and very possibly the luckier you are along the way... THE MORE YOU NEED A CONSTRUCT... because you've got more things to make sense of... possibly fewer things (or at least material things) to create purpose or direction...
When you finally "have it all"...
How will you make sense of it? How will you find meaning in it? How will you find purpose to keep moving forward?
When you finally "have it all"... What will you WANT for?
What if I already "have it all"? And, I just don't know how to crack the coconuts?
HARMONY is my CONSTRUCT.
MOMENTS are my COCONUTS...
Spoiler Alert: (We all already "have it all"... and sometimes we have to get or achieve even more, to realize we had it all, all along...
Commit to a CONSTRUCT...
consider harmony,
Mmmmm delicious... ;-)
Nestor