Choosing a Good Life by Ali Berman

Author:Ali Berman [Berman, Ali]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781616495350
Publisher: Hazelden Publishing

Leanne said that when she was in her twenties, the future always looked like it was out in front of her, like there was ample time to figure out how to balance all of her interests. Sure, she was putting in a lot of hours, but they would pay off eventually, right? She’d be able to start enjoying her life more fully at some point. Or so she told herself. At thirty, she came to the startling realization that life wasn’t in the future. Life was right at this moment. She asked herself, “When do people become adults? When are those decisions made? They are being made. You make them every day. You make those choices every day. How you want to live is not something in the future. Life should never be about the future.”

Rather than being a person who sacrificed herself for her company, Leanne changed how she approached her work. Now, instead of separating her life into two sections—work and personal—she decided that every minute should be spent doing things she wanted to do. Her business was a part of her life’s work, but it couldn’t give her everything she needed. And that meant she had to start running her company in a different way.

That’s when she asked herself when in her life she was the happiest. She said the answer was simple; it was when she was a resident advisor in college. If you ever meet Leanne, you’ll see right away that she was probably the greatest R.A. you could imagine. She smiles constantly, loves giving hugs, enjoys meeting new people, and, frankly, could best be described as bubbly. She told me, “I loved having a community; I loved bringing out the best in people; I loved being outside and seeing lots of people every day. Those were the things that I loved, but for a few years I thought I didn’t have the luxury of even asking myself what do I want in my day because I thought I just have to give everything to my business mission. And once I realized that I wasn’t going to last very much longer, I couldn’t do that anymore. I then asked myself, ‘Okay, well, what are the things that when I do them, I can handle that day?’ That’s when things changed.”

Two years ago, I wouldn’t have interviewed Leanne for this book. Sure, she would have had a lot of the different pieces I was looking for in people who were choosing the good life. She had passion for her work, great friends, and a real love of life, but she wasn’t taking care of herself in a way that allowed her to enjoy all the wonderful things she had worked for. She was, as she put it, reacting to life rather than being proactive.

Instead of working constantly, Leanne began carving out time for herself. Three very simple things changed the way she felt about her days.

The first was prioritizing sleep. For years, Leanne would stay up late getting work done, go to bed exhausted, and wake up feeling the same.

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