Morning Health Check

This morning’s coffee chat took a serious turn.

One that my wife and I sometimes take, to measure our days and activities.

It starts with a question:

“Is this better than being retired?”

We’re fortunate enough to have the choice fairly young. But the power in this question is available to every one of us…

The fact is, most of us get to choose how we spend our days, whether we like the options immediately available to us or not.

And our answers can be illuminating:

…We might admit we’d rather not be doing what we’re doing. In which case, we can make choices that change that reality.

…We might admit that we’d much prefer doing what we’re doing to retiring. In which case, we can be thankful to have something we enjoy so much.

Of course, external circumstances shouldn’t govern our happiness…

But asking this question serves as a really simple health-check on our external lives.

And health checks are no bad thing.

“The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.” — Epictetus