What’s in Your Circle?

The title of my book (written with Greg Miller and Aaron Hill) is The Circle Blueprint.  So, what is the “Circle”?

Supposedly it was Socrates, as he contemplated his death, who said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

I imagine you have a busy life…and perhaps a very busy life!  Busy is good to the extent that you are engaged and active.  Busy can be bad if you equate busy with meaningful, and to the extent busyness blocks your interest in or ability to examine your life.  We all know life is a “one way street”.  There are no “do overs”.  What is done is done, but today and tomorrow are here for your shaping.  How will you shape them?  What is important to you?  What are you trying to accomplish with your life?  The answers to these questions define your “Circle”.

The unexamined life could possibly result in a very small and petty “Circle” only because little or no conscious thought was put into the project of your life.  Your life is simply the byproduct of whatever forces are being exerted on you.  Your mother is making you do your homework.  Your boss is forcing you to go to work.  Your spouse is hounding you to take out the garbage.  You are doing whatever you need to do to get by.  And at the end of the day, when you look back over your life, you may conclude that you invested poorly in your “Circle”.  For the most part, you squandered the gift you were given.

Hopefully, that is not your story.  You have thought about your life and have discovered things that truly matter.  You have disciplined yourself to stay focused on your goals and to keep moving toward them with determination.  You can look back and feel good about what you have accomplished.  You have done all that you set out to do.  Well done!  But is that good enough?

The “well-examined life” might be formed around even bigger questions than what is important to you.  A bigger question might be, “What should be important to you?”  Perhaps there are things worthy of self-sacrifice that you failed to consider.  Perhaps you spent your life on your personal goals only to discover that taking care of yourself was, at the end of the day, fairly shallow.  Perhaps, you could have had a bigger and richer “Circle” had you only asked yourself bigger questions.

Please pay attention!  Please don’t say to yourself, “that was a nice idea” and then move on to your next event.  Please take 10 minutes to be quiet and to sit with these thoughts.  In light of what your life could be, is your current “Circle” big enough?  Be honest with yourself.