“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” — Maria Robinson
A simple way to think about designing your life is — your job, your village, and your hut.
These three together shape a large part of your every day experiences.
Your job is what you do, your village is where you hang out and who you spend your time with, and your hut is your family and your home.
While traveling cross-country, these three struck me as the common denominators.
They also struck me as the common differentiators.
Choosing what to do, where to live, and who to hang with reflects some of the most basic, yet most impactful choices in the quality of your life.
During my travels, I found some people optimize around their job, to do what they love.
Some people optimize around where to live, to immerse themselves in a particular culture, lifestyle, ambiance, or experience.
Some optimize around their family and roots.
Everybody makes trade-offs in one way or another.
Trading well is the name of the game.
The people that make the best trades, optimize around living their values.
Photo by ~MVI~.
And the dance is to figure out how to balance your time between your job, your village, and your hut in a way that makes you feel happy, authentic and alive!
I see many people not happy with their jobs, not connecting with their face-to-face villages, and struggling in their huts. Cheers to any one who is working on creating their dream job, dream village, and dream hut!
Living our values…or really…what is important to us – if we can truly do that, what a great place to be in. Some days will be easier than others, in the end, though, it really comes down to – are we being our authentic selves?
I really like this. It’s simple but true, and I see that I could connect better with my village!
P.S. I’m glad you got to see the Everglades. There is really nothing like it in rest of the United States and air boats are a lot of fun, if loud!
Trading well is the challenge of life. We all have only so much time, money and energy that we can spend in this world. Which core values we have and how these different sides of our life come together could be quite interesting. For example, some people may work where they live and socialize with neighbors that just happen to also be co-workers and be rather happy that way and others would be miserable with such an arrangement.
This also has me thinking of dualities and trinities in life. There are many pairs of things like good/bad, up/down, left/right, forward/backward, day/night, etc. but there are also many things with 3 sides like good/neutral/bad, up/sideways/down, left/straight/right, forward/neutral/backward, morning/afternoon/evening. Sometimes it is interesting to see the world in shades of grey.
I really enjoyed reading here! Thanks.
Covey says “To live, to love, to learn, to leave legacy.” These are great principles. Job, Village, Hut are where the principles meet practice [rubber hit the road?]
I also believe it is not one or another – i still believe in AND strategy. I still believe i could do all the L’s at work, in village, and in hut. This belief keeps my wheel turning 😉
Hi JD .. good analogy – because of course we see those three things wherever we go. As the other commenters have so succinctly put it’s up to us to find our own balance, our own dance within the circles that we operate in and the spikes that will go in and out .. family sickness etc.
Life is a ride and there are stops and starts along the way – it depends how we get off, and how we get on – what mood we take with us .. what opportunities we can take advantage of without disrupting our lives too much. We can share these challenges with our families, with our community sometimes – the benefits can rub off .. business should be for all too – not just self.
Thanks – Hilary Melton-Butcher
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I like the idea of the hut – forcing decisions around what surrounds you, what to bring in, what to leave outside. How to live life big in a way that fills your own space without clutter.
This is an interesting observation, and one that I think is accurate. You’ve definitely nailed the three areas where most of us truly live. Some of us live more in the hut and not so much in the job whereas others spread their living across all three domains.
I love your posts; they always give me something to think about and relate to. Happy New Year!
@ Stacey
Well put – happy, authentic, and alive!
@ Lance
You hit on a real key – to be authentic, you need to know your values, and be OK with being yourself — accepting and leveraging who you are, while you grow to who you want to be.
@ Hayden
There is nothing like the Everglades and I really dig the change in scenery.
@ JB King
I like your point on trinities and dualities. We can always find spectrums, shades, and 3rd alternatives.
@ sonkind
Thanks for stopping by.
@ Alik
It’s definitely an AND strategy, optimized against your most important values.
@ Hilary
Well put – I like the fine point you put on balance, dance, and spikes.
How we get on our ride is a great metaphor.
@ Fred
It’s definitely more – life by design over life by default.
@ Melissa
Thank you — Happy New Year to you too!
Just linked to http://www.goodoodles.com to your site. Fantastic!!!
@ April
Thank you.
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