Here’s an interesting thought. Here’s something to think upon.
What if you lost everything tomorrow? Everything that felt meaningful to you disappeared. Your title, if you have one. Your business. Your reputation. Your accomplishments. Your connections. Everything.
Would you be disappointed?
Would you be scared?
Would you feel lost?
Would you be able to rebuild a life with meaning?
I think about this a lot because I spend a lot of time thinking about everything I’m grateful for.
When I look at my life, I think first about my relationships. My amazing family. And I really do have an amazing family. In fact, I have more family than a lot of people have family.
I’m adopted, so I have my biological family, too. I found them years ago, and I have a rich, lovely, wonderful relationship with my maternal side. I know a few people from my paternal side as well, and I have a great relationship with them. I wish I knew more, but you know what they say about wishes. It’s okay. It’s all okay.
Then there’s the family I grew up with. My adopted family. It’s big. My father had a lot of siblings. I have lots of cousins, second cousins, aunts and uncles. There are also friends and neighbors from my childhood who became family.
I have family from my church world.
My company feels like family.
I have so much family.
Every day, I thank myself for sticking in there. I thank myself for trying hard. I thank myself for not giving up. And I thank God for the blessings and opportunities I’ve been given.
I’m grateful for what we’ve built through GigSalad. Together with my partner, we’re growing other businesses now, too. It’s exciting. I’m extremely content with where I am, and yet there’s still so much I want to create.
I hope whatever reputation I have is a good one.
But if all of it disappeared tomorrow, if people said, “That guy lost everything,” I honestly think I’d be okay.
I often say I could die and go to heaven today.
Sure, there are still places I’d like to go, businesses I’d like to build, and yes, I’d still like to be an actor. But I’m working toward those things right now. If they don’t happen, that’s okay.
I’ll have died trying.
I’m in the arena.
I’m doing the work.
And I’m having the time of my life.
I’m 60 years old, and my life feels so full. I feel complete. I feel happy. I have so much joy.
When I look back, it’s obvious how much goodness I’ve experienced and how many blessings I’ve been given.
I also know that’s not everyone’s story.
Some people have experienced more suffering, more challenge, more heartache and heartbreak than I have. I have compassion and empathy for that. Not because I’ve somehow avoided hardship, but because when I look at what I’ve been given, I know I’ve been incredibly fortunate.
I hope I’ve done something worthwhile with what I’ve been given.
And I hope to keep doing it.
But if it all disappeared tomorrow, I hope those accomplishments, businesses and titles aren’t what give my life value.
They’re contributing factors, sure.
But they aren’t the foundation.
The foundation is the people I get to spend time with. My friends. My family. The people I get to build things with, laugh with, struggle with and love.
That’s what really matters.
And I’d like to think those people would still be there… even if everything else wasn’t.