Five Easy Steps to Wreck Your Life

Wrecking one’s life isn’t all that difficult. Coaching sessions with top-notch executives – talented, smart and good at what they do – reveal an extraordinary gift for giving momentum to the wrecking ball of life.

But once in a while, a leader has a come-to-Jesus meeting … with himself or herself (and perhaps a coach) to identify one small alteration within his/her total way of living. Rather than work on business leadership, he or she works on leading a more outstanding, authentic life.

And, as if on cue after the fat lady sings, the truth is then revealed – the best leaders are the ones who have rich personal lives.

You don’t have to have a high-level executive title to keep reading; just be in an evaluative mood. Construct a kind of performance review for yourself, so the choices you are making don’t whoop up and slip into a lifetime. Here are the steps to wrecking your life:

#1. Lie to Yourself: Keep believing what you know isn’t the truth anymore.  Did you love that job once but not so much lately? How is that marriage? Are you feeling as carefree and joyful with the way your life is being played out now that you’re in the middle of it?  or somewhere prior to the middle? Gravitate toward a less than honest but positive assessment so you don’t have to confront some tough issues.  You can do that later – in the dining room of your assisted living facility.

#2. Waste Your Heart: No aerobic assessments here; this is about listening to your gut.  Trusting yourself is taking a chance on yourself – that’s a risk, kiddo.  Sca-ry! Don’t pay attention to yourself.  Drown out your intuition with too much planning for each and every month on that calendar.  For goodness sake, don’t slow down or those damn questions that your soul is sending (such as, “what am I doing” or “why am I doing this?”) might get in your face. They might show up sometime other than when you’re stopped at a traffic light or throwing a flower onto a coffin.

#3. Seek Perfect People: Complete your life like a branding consultant and start running from anyone who doesn’t “add value.”  Of course you can’t live your best life when your boss is over-bearing or some of your family members sucks at being great.  So, blame them, leave them or better yet, start devoting all of your time and energy to “fixing” these smarmy people.   There’s no way to live the life you want until everyone around you is just right.

#4. Wait on Something: We know there are just things that have messed up the idea of you living the life you want and you have to wait until everything is hunky dory.  Think of the life you really want as a gift certificate that someday you’ll redeem.  The best time for this is when the kids are grown, the mortgage is paid, your aging parents are on happy drugs and your partner finds his or her own happiness to spill over onto you.

#5. Plan on Retirement: Be sure to concoct some crazy place in the future where you plan to stop working and start living. Take yourself out of the workplace just when your experience and skill set is chiseled to benefit an organization or your own business. Do not design a life where you seek to find meaning and value in “work” –  no matter what your age – while still living the life you want.  So absurd.

Well…..how are you doing? Are you taking any of these steps?