No, you can’t have it all!

And you probably don’t want to.

Photo by Christina Winter on Unsplash

Perhaps you can relate to this train of thought: I don’t feel happy, but I don’t understand why! I have a well-paid, stable job with a decent work-life balance, and my life is, on overall, easy. Should I instead be travelling, saving lives or doing something creative? Sure. But no one can have it all!

Yes, at first sight, it might appear a little bit spoiled to want more from life, especially when you feel life has been already so generous to you. Who are you to ask for more? After all, no one has it all!

But what if the problem isn’t that you want to have it all, or to have more, for that matter? What if you need even less than you already have, but the things that you need are not present?

“What could those things be? I have already everything I have ever asked for, and more!” you might argue.

Let me ask you: 

• What would you do if time and resources were not a concern? 

• What would you like your impact to be? 

• What would your life look like if you pursued those things? 

You might realize now that what you want from life, is not to have everything. Maybe it’s just a clear purpose or a sense of fulfilment that is missing. And, on the other side, there might be things that don’t matter to you as much, but you keep pursuing them out of habit, or because “that’s how things should be.”

No, you can’t have it all, and you probably don’t even want to. What you might want is to pursue things that have a deeper meaning to you. Perhaps you have, until now, prioritized comfort and safety over those things. 

Originally posted Posted on February 6, 2020