Matt plays Maxwell Smart
I feel a bit like I’ve been in a time warp. Moving back to a country I haven’t lived in for over a decade, and a city I haven’t lived in for even longer has been many things. Slightly weird is one of them.
This afternoon some items I’d had in storage since 2001 (when I moved to the US ) were delivered to my new home here in Melbourne. Of course my husband and I had no idea back then how long we would be gone or we’d never have bothered to store them. Off the truck came four big boxes. I had long since forgotten what I’d packed inside them so opening them up felt a little like opening up a long lost Egyptian tomb… what treasures would I discover inside?
As luck would have it, not much.
What emerged from under copious amounts of wrapping paper was not so much treasure but worthless relics from a distant past, including a ton of dirty old plant tubs, complete with dried prehistoric snails (honestly what was I thinking?!) and archaically large medieval cordless phone – which my 9 year old son of Matthew, posing here as Maxwell Smart – thought was pretty darn cool. Nearly as cool as I thought it was when I bought it back last century.
A lot has changed since I last lived in Australia. From the technology I used to communicate with to the faces on TV. Some Aussie’s have obviously hit the big time since I last lived here, and some others have fallen from grace. There have been many who have made millions (particularly those involved in Australia’s booming mining industry), and others who have lost it. As I’ve run into old university/college friends, I’ve also heard sad stories of old friends whose lives have been derailed by addiction – drugs, alcohol and gambling. Sadder still are the stories I’ve heard of those who are no longer alive.
Other stories I’ve heard have absolutely delighted me. Friends who have started businesses that are now going global. Old classmates that have over come huge hurdles, and are now thriving. People who were only teenagers when I left in 2001 who are now international super stars.
What has occurred to me as I’ve planted myself back into Aussie soil, is just how much anyone’s life can change over the course of a decade. For better and for worse. And I can’t help but wonder, what else will change in the decade ahead? For you, for me, and across the globe?
Albert Camus once said that our lives are the lump sum of all our choices. Of course sometimes we have no control over the circumstances we find ourselves in, but we always get to choose how we respond. Other times we have complete control over our circumstances. Whether we continue to put up with situations (and relationships) that leave us drained and longing for more. Whether we continue to play safe in our careers because we are afraid we don’t have what it takes to succeed doing what we truly want. Whether we resist change, and stick with a status quo that while it may not be miserable, is a far cry from what we really want.
It’s probably not something you’ve ever thought to do before, but just imagine if you were to get a snap shot of your life in 2022, ten years from now. What would it look like? Of course your current iPhone 4S would probably be as useless an antiquity by then to you as my old cordless phone from 2001 is to me now. But what about those other aspects of your life… your relationship with you partner and children and siblings and parents and friends? What about the work that you would be doing each day and who you would be doing it with? What about where you would be liven, what you would do your weekends and who you would be doing it with?
I recall exactly ten years ago sitting on the beach in Mexico, about 5 months after moving to the US, and trying to visualise the life I wanted to be leading ten years out. Into my mind flashed a vision of my husband Andrew and I with four children. At the time I had three under four. I remember slapping myself. I knew the work a fourth child would involve. Yet I also knew that my ideal life did not only have me empowering people to live bigger lives, but being a mother to a big noisy family myself. Matthew, in the photo above, was the blessing that came from that vision. And yes, he has added more than his share of noise and chaos to my life, but oh, what a richer life I have because of him.
All I know for sure is this, we regret far more the things we don’t do than those we do. Ten years can go passed awfully fast. But it also provides countless opportunities for making changes and for taking chances that can totally reshape the reality of our lives.
So, if you could enter into a temporary “time warp”, and paint for yourself the world you’d love to inhabit ten years from now, what would it look like?
As I wrote in my book Find Your Courage, we fail far more from timidity than we do from over daring. So trust in yourself that whatever direction your dreams and aspirations may take you, you have the courage to follow.
Margie, I'm mightily impressed with how quickly you have "planted yourself" back in Australia. Loved your newsletter. As always very thought provoking. Also glad to know you are back in the US just next month. The northern hemisphere misses you!
Tracy Cook, Atlanta, GA
Thanks Tracy. Having moved a lot over the years – sometimes in close succession – I've always embraced the attitude that wherever we are, however long we are going to be there, we should dive into what it offers and make the most of it. Sometimes that means we feel more pain when we have to leave, but it makes each place we live so much more rewarding.
Great post. You make really profound points in very positive and interesting ways. Ten years ago I just out of uni, looking for work and wondering what I should do with my life. Ten years on I am married to the girl of my dreams and working as a landscape gardener doing work I really enjoy every day.
Ten years from now? You've got me thinking!
Good to hear Rohan! Too often we think too little!
Cannot imagine what phone we will be using in 2022, but I appreciate the prompt to think about the life I would like to be living. Great blog Margie.
Thanks Kim! ALways hard to imagine ten years about but gee, it will be here so fast!
Margie your emails always come to me at the perfect time and seem to say just what i need to hear. While I am not a religious person, I believe that you have a special gift from the universe and I am so glad you are sharing it with the world. I have made so many life changes because of the words you have written. Each of them has led to me having a better life in some way. So I am eternally grateful to you for doing the work that you do and for writing from your heart, not just your head. Wishing you continued good health and success.
Rayna, Amman, Jordan.
Thank you Rayna. Really appreciate your kind words and so glad that my emails impact your heart, not just your head.
Margie your posts are a staple in my library of resources! The timing of this one is particularly prophetic. I completed a Compass coaching session on Strategy vs Tactics (just last night) that left me with a new awareness of my need for long term intention designs. You have just given me the encouragement to make this a priority!
Thanks,
Jan
So glad to hear that. Time for a Life Strategy Session Jan! 🙂
Margie, your post brought to mind a webcast I Iistened to last week – Karl Pillemer, author of 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans. The book details wisdom from hundreds of folks between the ages of 75 and 108. From their perspective … life truly is short so enjoy what you have now, it's about people and experiences not the accumulation of material possessions and the biggest regrets were ones related to things they DIDN'T do. Saying "yes" to opportunities whenever they appeared is something they highly recommended. Margie, you've certainly done that!
Thanks Evelin. I'm not sure when or how I became so fierce about making the most of life's opportunities but having lost several people I've loved too early in life, I'm so aware of just how precious, fleeting and fragile life is. So when it comes to seizing opportunities as they unfold, I rarely hesitate before jumping in. LIfe's too short to be lived with timidity.
Margie, your post as always brought many things to mind. I was thinking of when I moved away from home over 30 years ago to stand on my own and begin a wonderful professional and personal life in Northern Virginia. I do not have any regrets in my life and feel fulfilled. Once in a while I do think of how my life would have been different, but usually only when I do visit my family and friends in Boston. To me, some of them do not seem to have moved on and yet they are quite happy in their own lives. It brings home to me the fact that we are all different and have to go our own way. I do think of the future once in a while, but do not plan too far out as I want to enjoy being present. Enjoy being back in your beautiful homeland. Marie
Thanks Marie. Yes, there are so many crossroads we arrive at in life. We make the best choices we can at the time and yet it's only human to sometimes look back and wonder where we'd be at if we'd taken a different path. But life can only be lived forward, and enjoying the moment is ultimately what matters most, wherever we are planted.