How to create an appealing life

Do you live an appealing life? Did you ever ask yourself whether you are following the right goals in your life? Do you even set long-term goals? Are you willing to find out? Yeah? Then I am glad to introduce you to my friend Alex. He is an entrepreneur and blogger, who dedicated his efforts to share ideas and products for a healthier and more conscious lifestyle. On his blog www.derstoiker.de he frequently gives interesting insights to his thoughts and ideas (the blog is written in German). Now he invites you to an experiment that will get you closer to finding out what really matters to you in your life.

Enter Alex

Did you ever wonder why you do what you do? Never questioned the reasons behind your actions? Why this trade, not that one? Why trades in general in the first place? Then I have the right exercise for you. Buckle up for an intense ride right through your soul:

Imagine you are invited to a funeral. You dress up and drive to the funeral. As you arrive at the funeral you approach the coffin. With astonishment you realize that it’s you lying there. It’s your own funeral! This event will take place in 3 years from now. On that particular day there are going to be 4 speakers. The first one will be someone from your family. Your spouse, father, mother, son, daughter, sister, brother, uncle, aunt, cousins. The second will be someone from your circle of friends, who can say something about what kind of person you were. The third one is a coworker and the last one is from an organization, club or society you belonged. 

Now think thoroughly about what each one of them should say about you. Who were you, what kind of a person, what did you do with your life, what did you accomplish, how did you treat your fellows, what were the topics you were burning for? What would your family say about you? What kind of a spouse were you, what kind of a father/mother, son/daughter? How did you treat your brothers/sisters? Were you a good friend? Whom did you help, whom not? Were you a helpful colleague, who reliably did his work? Which position did you hold in your society/club? What greater goal did you achieve in your life? Which character should the speakers portray, which contribution and achievement should the people remember? In which way did you affect other people’s lives? 

Take some time to imagine the situation. Work out the answers to these questions and note them down. With doing this exercise you will become aware of your fundamental inner values. You will realize what keeps you going in life and what’s really important for you. You need this exercise to fully understand the principle „Begin with the End in Mind“. This principle is one out of „The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People“ by Steven R. Covey. I highly recommend you read the whole book. It could change your life. 

With this principle you ensure you live everyday in context to your life’s longterm vision. It means to understand where you are heading, also where you are right now. In this way you can always guide your steps in the right direction. 

You get easily caught in the activity trap, the daily hustle. You chase after goals (which may not even be yours, because they are dictated by your social environment or which are just plain convention) and climb rung after rung of the ladder of success, only to realize that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall! It’s possible that you are very busy, but little effective. If the ladder does lean against the wrong wall, then every step just brings you faster to the wrong destination. 

If you think thoroughly about what you want to hear at your own funeral, your definition of success might change and it could be a whole lot different than what you originally thought. Glory, achievement and money maybe not even a part of your wall. When you begin with the end in mind, you will gain a different perspective and you will be aware of what’s important in your life. 

I know this exercise is really crass, but I can guarantee it will open your eyes! So, go and do it NOW!

From Alex @DokTrader

Thanks Alex for the shocking and inspiring experiment!

If you enjoyed Alex's post, feel free to visit his blog on www.derstoiker.de for more inspiring lines.

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Important remark: The results presented above and throughout my blog are no recommendation for your trading! I only share my personal findings and opinions to give ideas and let my followers and copiers know what I am currently working on. I can not guarantee the correctness of my calculations and my presented results. Furthermore past performance is not an indication for future results. Only trade with money you are prepared to lose!