Wake up. Take a shower. Brush your teeth. Comb your hair. Get dressed. Go to work. Go home. Have dinner. Play with the kids. Watch that show you’ve had DVR’d since last month. Check your emails one last time. Go to bed.
Sound like a regular day? What did you gain in life profit today?
Life profit? Like…how much did I earn today? No. How much did you do today to make today different than the last?
Recently at a conference I heard Dustin Garis talk about the concept of life profit (or #lifeprofit for those who Tweet). The idea that new experiences give a bigger profit than the mundane routines that each of us so easily fall into day after day. I’m as guilty as the next. In fact, that first paragraph pretty much sums up my weekdays. I like routines. They are easy and they provide comfort. But what are those routines costing me? A feeling of meaningful work? The thrill of doing something new and daring? The dreams that I’ve had since childhood? Maybe telling myself that I’m no one special and that I can’t possible help someone else when I already have so much on my plate?
The truth is we all need to find a way to raise our life profits. We need to find a way to get ourselves out of the red and boldly step into the black. How can we do this? Start small is my best answer. Find something different today to do and then find something new to do tomorrow. Maybe you start by telling that person in line in front of you in the grocery store how much you love their scarf. Or, send an email to the person in your office that you’re sure you can be friends with but have always been too shy to reach out to before. Each step is a step towards feeling more connected. Not just to others but to your own life.
If you always wanted to be more involved in your community-now is the time to capitalize on those life profit experiences. Don’t remember only 3 days out of your last month! Today is the day. The magical, amazing day that you can make difference. Volunteer through Serve Grant County. Or attend an event, maybe like the Hoosier Shakes production of Twelfth Night and Pericles in Marion (http://hoosiershakes.com/), or just reach out to a friend that you haven’t seen in ages and ask to have dinner.
Don’t ask where the time went. Start today. Who knows how wealthy you can be when you start focusing on life profit.