What is Your #1 Project or Priority?
Would you answer the same if you were looking back from your deathbed?
As a coach, one of the most confronting yet instructive questions I would ask of people was: You’re on your death bed, there is no coming back from whatever ails you. You think back on the last 18 months: was what you were doing really what you wanted to be focused on or was it an in-between project?
We may feel that there are valid reasons to follow stepping stones, but many times these projects, in and of themselves, are unfulfilling and when we get to the end of them we change pathways anyway. They have become dead ends: stepping stones to nowhere.
This is why it is healthy to reprioritise our lives and projects on a regular basis: parse them against the deathbed question. You will be surprised at how often we are astray from our soul purpose and goals of consequence.
I went through this exercise this week. I’d prioritised my writing projects so that I completed a serialisation book project as a proof of concept for Conked.io’s serialisation bundle, then I wanted to complete a true crime thriller because it has great legs and finally I would publish my heart journey memoir. However, I had to go into hospital for a potentially tricky operation and while the odds were not heavily stacked against me surviving it, I know from experience that things can turn out very badly. As a result I spent last weekend getting my life strands in order so that my passing would be minimally impactful on my family and I undertook a self inquiry exercise to determine what were my true priorities and how could they be fulfilled even with me gone.
I came to the realisation that the memoir was my standout #1 priority writing project. My goal as I’m recovering from a heart transplant is to inspire people and give them hope. The memoir has this as its sole purpose and were it to be completed it could continue to do so as a powerful legacy in absentia. I spent the next few days putting in place plans to take the first draft I’d done in August into a publishable format so that it could get out there and inspire people. I also put in place plans to develop an inspiring author website at rand leebdutoit.com that would stand as a beacon of hope were I to not survive the week.
As it turns out the operation was postponed in favour of more tests and I did get home by the end of the week.
However, I am now armed with fresh insights into what resonates most with me and will focus on progressing my memoir and website, while relegating my other project to #2,3,4 slots.
DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE TO CONKED.IO, your place for finely distilled writing, curated thoughtfully.
The death bed question and picturing “stepping stones to nowhere” resonate. I look forward to reading more of your work and mapping out mine.