Chipping Away at the Life of Your Dreams
Listening to one of my favorite books while I was working out a few weeks ago I came across a lovely gem of an idea that I had to pass on.
In Gary John Bishop’s book, Unfu*k Yourself, he talks about how when Michelangelo was sculpting the David, he was in fact uncovering David from the stone instead of slowing building David. David already existed in the stone and Michelangelo was just chipping away to uncover him.
He relates this to our lives in a way that really hit home for me. I am so busy trying to improve my life by fixing what is broken and by changing what already is. Instead, we should think of today as chipping away at the future us that we see. The future us that we want to be already exists, we just need to take the actions today to “chip away” until we uncover it.
I love this idea. I spend my time trying to fix and change the marriage that I already have, or I’m trying to fix and change the unmotivated me that has already messed up, or I try to fix and change the mistakes I’ve made with my health. My focus is always on the past and what I need to do today to not be that past.
Instead, I want to think about future me and what that looks like. What does my marriage look like in the future and what do I need to do in this moment to make sure I’m “chipping away” to that future? What does a motivated me look like and how does she act today to make sure I’m building toward that? Where do I want to be health-wise in a few years and what actions should I take today that is that person?
Do you think of the future you or the past you when you are trying to make today’s choices?
