Would you be happy with today being your last day on earth?

Nothing like a daunting question for getting the conversation started.

You might be saying to yourself, "I thought this was supposed to be a fun click-baity article? This feels like a trap to think deep thoughts." And you're right. I totally fooled you. But now that you are here you might as well join me on the deep thoughts train.

I was chatting with my friend Coburn recently, and he shared something really revolutionary with me: his needs for his day tie back to his body, mind, and spirit. Coburn is my go-to for living an intentional life and I thought this sounded like a pretty good exercise to go through for myself; the thought being: if you have fulfillment in a day, it has been a well-lived day.

First, definition of body, mind, and spirit:

  • Body: all 6'8" of me: my physical arms, legs, etc.

  • Mind: my intellect, my thoughts, my logic

  • Spirit: my spark for life, my attitude, my inclinations

Next, I wrote down a smattering of needs based on my current lifestyle and synthesized them by body, mind, and spirit.

A smattering of needs
A smattering of needs

And now I know what you are thinking, "woahhh there Bretty. That is way more than 12." And to you, I say "astute observation!"

So I distilled them down, cut out some overlap, and came up with this nice synthesized list.

Body

  • 1 hour of working out

  • 8 hours of sleep

  • 30 minutes of maintaining my body via self-care (face masks, vitamins, flossing, hot tub, yoga, etc.)

  • Some interaction with the outdoors

Mind

  • Morning intention setting with the question: "What does success look like today?"

  • Consume new content outside of a screen

  • Create something (art, a photo, a blog post, code, etc.)

  • Solve one tough problem with a creative solution

Spirit

  • Have a meaningful interaction with a stranger

  • Have a deep intellectual conversation with a friend

  • 0 inbox policy for email, text, and social media

  • Discover something new about the world around me

And voila! a list of my needs for fulfillment. All good to be fulfilled everyday forever and live the perfect life, right? Boy do I wish. I am cognizant that I am a deeply imperfect human. While I want to be fulfilled every single day, I understand that there will always be highs and lows. There will be days where I want to rip my hair out and days that I never want to end. Here's what gives me hope:

"I am intentionally working toward a well-lived life that I am proud to call my own."

I hope you are too. What do you need for fulfillment? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Reach out and share your thoughts.