dancing with life

Today I’m going to look at two of the most powerful questions in the world,
Q2 “What do I want?” and Q3 “How am I going to get it?”,

When the sun’s shining and the birds are singing it can be quite easy to feel good, but when you’ve planned a picnic and you find all the shops are closed and the weather’s just started like it’s time for Noah to build another ark, you might not feel so light hearted. This is one of those golden opportunities to give in and give up, with the predictable, unhappy consequences that it will have on your life.



The ability to use these questions either before these situations occur or in the moment that everything begins to deviate from your plan is essential for being able to dance with life. Life doesn’t seem to have your picnic pencilled in its diary, it hasn’t arranged the weather to fit your picnicking needs, and in fact it doesn’t really care either way. Life will sometimes appear to support your endeavours and other times seem out to crush them; but it’s not actually bothered either way. Life doesn’t have an interest, it just does what it does and if you want your life to be better than a random series of ups and downs then you need Q2 and 3



If the picnic is ruined by the weather, it’s time to use Q2 and Q3, “What do I want and how am I going to get it?”



It sounds simple and it is, but it’s amazing how easy it can be to forget this when the things we’ve planned go up in smoke in front of our eyes. Surf over the dips in life’s ups and downs with this key question and make plans to dance with life.

I’ve just been rereading this book and this little section and I’m amazed at how important these few lines are; I’d say that taking on this perspective is probably one of the most important thing s you can ever do in life. In my interesting life so far part of my research has been to have had the privilege to talk in depth with people about what makes them happy, successful, inspiring or not. Every person who I’ve ever spoken with who’s successful, fulfilled and happy, etc. has this perspective on life. So, if want what some of them have got, maybe you should join those who dance with what life brings!



Exercise: Dancing with life

Take some time to imagine what it would be like to take on this habit of finding a way to dance with everything life throws at you. Who you know or have read about who already does this?

What would it be like to be in their shoes for a day?



Phil Parker’s book the Ten Questions is available on amazon, kindle and from store.philparker.org