Exercise: Defining The Great Life (II)

In the first exercise in the workbook, I am asked to define:

1. Great work (doing "high impact work in a timely fashion")
2. How close I am to achieving great work (and what might complicate achieving great work)
3. Great life (achieving a moderate level of satisfaction in life in the short and long term)
4. How close I am to achieving great life (and what might complicate achieving great life)
5. What are my biggest concerns as I think about achieving these things?

3.  Great life (achieving a moderate level of satisfaction in life in the short and long term)

This is the question I am asking as I read this book, the reason I am reading this book, in tandem with many other forms of self-reflective work.  After a series of professional and life changes and challenges, I think I can say this:

• I will achieve a great life if I cultivate relationships with people who will always encourage me to become better than I am -- to see the limitations in myself that I cannot see, to share with me the stories that show me ways of experiencing life that are not part of my experience, who cultivate in me new practices of self-exploration and new experiences in the world, and who push me to become more than I am now, in a context that feels safe.
• I will achieve a great life if I do the same for others whom I love (from the love one feels for family through the love one feels for friends through the love one feels for a partner and children).
• I will achieve a great life if I take the insights from these relationships (as well as from the art, literature, media, and travel that I love) and from my own practices of self-reflection, and work to make myself and my community (professional, civic and family communities) better.

4.  How close I am to achieving great life (and what might complicate achieving great life)

I am closer to the wide array of friendships and family relationships like this than many people I know.  There are forms of these relationships (romantic, parental) that I have yet to make part of my life in this way.  

That said, working with the relationships I have -- I think I cultivate myself and others in the way I describe here, and I cultivate positive change in my communities in this way.  So close, but with growth ahead.

5.  What are my biggest concerns as I think about achieving these things?

My biggest concerns are always about what I don't see and what I don't understand, what I don't know.  What are the lacunae in my vision that keep me from moving forward?