Life, Change, End

We decided to cut down two large trees in our front yard this week. Planted after our house was built in 1972, these trees were more than 50 years old.  I am turning 50 this year, my wife turned 50 last year and so it seems that these trees got me thinking about life in general.  

The older we get the quicker time seems to go by.  That’s life right?  Our bodies don’t feel the same as they used to perhaps.  We don’t look the same way we used to.  That’s change right? Just like those two trees, eventually we all stop consuming the air around us too.   That’s the end right?

Unlike the trees, people do have a say in their lives.  What happens to each of us between birth and death is a combination of controlled and uncontrolled events.  For purposes of this blog, let’s set aside the “uncontrollable” aspects of our life; after all, what we do not control should not be our focus.  Instead, those things in life that we can influence or exert some sort of command and control over should be our focus.  At least that is my bias!

As odd as it sounds, while I watched those two trees get cut down in my yard, I could not help but think about choices we make and choices we do not make in our short but hopefully meaningful lives.  I do not have the answers to these questions, but I wanted to share them:

• What do you want to do with your life?  Are you doing it now?
• Are your actions aligned with your goals?  Do you have (the right) goals?
• What makes you happy? Are you doing enough of it?
• Are you being kind enough to others?  How can you be more kind?

In financial planning we often get to do the organizing of people’s money matters.  We gather, we sort, we plan, we sell, we buy, we keep on planning for inevitable changes to the plan.  It is important work.  But the questions asked above are important too.  Really important.  So, ask yourself these questions and see if you need to make changes.  Change is hard.  But that’s life right?  And we only have until the end…but it’s not too late!