How to Live Your Good Life -- (5 Signs You May be Off Course)
It was a full moon, which may explain what happened.
We were in Spain, which could also explain it.
Regardless of where it came from, there was no stopping it.
This was day two of the Good Life Retreat, where we were clarifying, discovering and committing to our best lives.
It was intimate and global.
Around the dinner table were 7 of us. This includes the two leaders. It does not include the cook from Venezuela who, by the end was every bit a part of our group.
No two of us were from the same country. While we all spoke English, (except for the cook, who spoke nonetheless from his heart).
In addition to Venezuela, we were from Lithuania, Spain, France, U.K., Korea, The Netherlands and the US.
The cook, who'd joined us for dinner, was talking about endorphins in Spanish.
To my ear, it sounded like dolphins. I did an approximation of a dolphin swimming, by way of explaining.
So began a wild chain of events.
The woman from France put on "Under the Sea."
As the full moon rose in the sky over the villa, all of us -- including the the cook -- began dancing around the table.
This was one of many spontaneous eruptions during the 5-day retreat -- and an essential ingredient of our good life.
When we weren't dancing, we were writing, drawing, dreaming, listening and speaking.
We cried many times. We witnessed each other in our pain and glory.
We laughed until our bellies couldn't take it any more.
We even hid under the dining room table in attempt to surprise our cook. (He was completely unimpressed, which made it all the funnier.)
What emerged was this: There is a life each of us is meant to lead.
The Good Life is both ordinary and magnificent.
It is both right here and in the future.
It is both designed and dreamed.
The good life has an inseparable and reciprocal relationship with our values and life purpose. Each strengthens and clarifies the other.
Values provide a compass for our actions and help us design our best life.
Being in misalignment with our values can show up in the following ways:
Over-efforting
Dread
Forcing yourself
Pushing rather than being attracted
Adrift or unmoored
When something feels hard, we can ask the following questions:
Are my actions in alignment with my values?
Which of my values am I honoring?
Which of my values am I dishonoring?
The Good Life is the sun that shines on all the values.
Call it the Mother of all Values.
We only get one life, after all.
Did I have to go all the way to Spain to realign myself with my best life?
Yes.
And No.
The good life lives in each of us.
But to locate it what lives within us, sometimes we have to go far away to find it.
We need to step out of our hustle and breathe.
A villa in Spain is great place to do that. But not the only way.
Upon my return to Minneapolis, I hit the ground running.
But this time, the clear vision of my Good Life is shining the way.
Having a clear vision makes everything easier.
Mine includes helping others find their good life.
And dancing on a full moon.
What're the essential ingredients of your good life?