Stack Your Life

Socrates once said that the unexamined life is not worth living. Well, look what happened to him. He's dead, if you weren't sure. Imprisoned by his own friends and then forced to drink hemlock. But, don't worry! This wasn't a result of examining his life, but of corrupting the youth. So, let's go on examining our lives and not talk to children at all.

In all seriousness, if we are on a quest for the best life possible with the grungiest of grips, then some self-examination is not only helpful, but necessary. Lately, I've been using a little exercise that I like to call Life Stacks to see if my life is on the right track or if I've strayed from the course. You may be wondering what this course of which I speak actually is. Simply put, it's doing what you love and living by a set of standards that are important to you. This is where the self-examination comes in as you need to know what is actually important to you.

Knowing what is important to you can be a very difficult task simply because we must differentiate between what gives us pleasure and what truly fulfills us (unless getting pleasure truly fulfills you, in which case you're wasting time reading this when you could be eating a snow-cone in a massage chair). This takes careful thought and a little bit of hard work. If your list of important things is too long you must wonder how much time you actually spend on these things. If too short, you may need to broaden your horizons. I find it helpful to have a clear and concise list of around 10 things (I have 8) that are of sincere importance to you. Having a tangible and breviloquent list of that which is tantamount in your life alleviates any worries you may have regarding decision making, time spent, or even where your money goes. How? If you're thinking about spending time, money, or effort on something that really isn't that important, then why are you doing it? You probably should have a very strong reason to do so. And this is where the Life Stacks come in; they allow you to see if you are actually spending your time, money, and efforts on worthwhile pursuits.

Here's how it works. Get out a piece of paper and something with which to write. Make 2 columns or "stacks". 1 stack is going to be your list of things that are important to you. The other stack is a list of things on which you spend the majority of your energies and resources. It's helpful to have stacks of equal size (8 in each stack or 10 or whatever). Now, simply match them up. How many items appear in both stacks? Any? If you're living an awesome life the answer should be all. If it's not, you now know what you need to work on and you can develop a plan and set a goal (see last week's post) for how to get there.

                                                                    Stacked.

Here's an example using my stacks. The items are in no particular order:

Important                                                 
God (praying, reading scripture, and serving others)                                                          
Friends/Family (catching up/spending time with)                                            
Food (focusing on and eating quality foods in my own kitchen, rather than buying garbage)                                                      
Coffee (quality roasts and well-made espressos over Starbucks quickies and Folgers goo)                                                        
Style (owning a few quality, timeless items instead of oodles of Ed Hardy t-shirts)                                                          
Fitness (this is everything from lifting, mobility, and sprinting to climbing, surfing, and backpacking)                                                          
Music (writing and finding new stuff)                                                          
Books (at least one every 2 weeks)

Actual
Work (is this what I want to be/should be doing?)
Facebook (how many times did I refresh the News Feed this hour?)
TV (do I enjoy this show or am I just passing time?)
Lifting (how much time do I need to spend reading about it when it only takes an hour?)
Pinterest (I'm not a girl getting married nor am I into mason jars)
Suit Up or Die (it takes 5 minutes twice a week, not an hour a day)
Craigslist motorcycle shopping (can't afford it)
Stress (sitting around worrying is unproductive)

As you can see I have a lot of work to do as none of the items on my stacks match up. Now, I could argue that things like Pinterest and SUoD influence my style, Facebook counts as friend time, and work enables all the others, but that would be rationalizing poor decisions when I should be trying to make better ones.

I can also use stacks to see where I'm spending most of my energy and where energy should be directed. It's obvious that I spend too much time cruising around the internet as 5 of the 8 in the actual stack are internet-based. This takes away from time I could spend reading or playing music. I also end up buying things I don't need but see on the internet, so I have less money to spend on good food and coffee. The more I stress, the crazier my hormones get and instead of putting down a spinach salad I appease my craving for maple bar donuts. I could go out and grab a drink with friends or I could watch reruns of Bones.

After examining both lists it's pretty easy to see where you're going wrong, where you're going right, and how to fix it. So, give this a shot if you're feeling like making some improvements. And for heaven's sake, stop corrupting the youths. It's bad enough they're still using YOLO.