Recently I was having a chat with my Mother while she was visiting from America. I started telling her about this little mental exercise I do from time to time to evaluate how my life is going. She thought it was a very interesting way to look at things, so I thought I would share it with you.
Since I was in college I started to think about what were the most important aspects of my life. I selected the following in no particular order:
1. My Love Life
2. My Family and Friends
3. My Career
4. My Finances
5. My Health
For some reason I pictured these in 5 colored boxes. I began to tick the boxes that I felt satisfied in. At the time, I was in a long-term relationship so I could tick the love box. My family and friends were all healthy and happy so I was able to tick that one too. My career had not started yet but I was able to tick that box since I was doing a course in college that I had always wanted to. My finances were not great as a student, so I left that one blank. Finally, at the age of 19 my health was good so that was another box I could tick. Life was going pretty well for me at that time in my life. I had 4 out of 5 boxes ticked. Every six months or so I would revisit these "Success Boxes" to evaluate how my life was going.
Throughout my twenties I often had only one box ticked. It is no surprise that whenever I had only one box ticked, I was going through a dark time in my life. What I did notice though, was that for every box I ticked, one would suddenly become un-ticked. For example, if I had just gotten that dream job, my relationship suddenly ended. Then another time, I was in a good romantic relationship and had a good career, but my health began to trouble me. More recently, my career hit a hard spot and my health got better! No matter what I do, these boxes just keep bouncing back and fourth.
What I like to take from this exercise is that even in times of despair ,it can cheer me up. As long as there is at least one box ticked, I feel grateful for that. It also highlights what areas I need to focus on and it motivates me to get working on them. Of course there will always be elements to this that you will have little or no control over. These are the areas you can ask for a bit of help from wherever you get your own spiritual guidance.
So I hope for anyone reading this that they will try out this exercise. It has always proved to be very helpful in my life. I look forward to the times when I will have all 5 of my boxes ticked as I know those will be some of the happiest times in my life.
