Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you had one week left to live, would you still be doing what you’re doing now? In what areas of your life are you preparing to live? Take them off your To Do list and add them to a To Stop list. Resolve to only do what makes you come alive.

Bonus: How can your goals improve the present and not keep you in a perpetual “always something better” spiral?

(Author: Jonathan Mead)

Ha, my first thought as a control freak is, yeah right – take something off my to-list and put it in my to-stop list!  We’d all be living in filth!  If I had one week left to live, I wouldn’t care how much dog hair was on the ground and inevitably then stuck to the drool on my daughter’s face.  I would only care about spending time with the ones I love.  My husband and I would tackle all the absolutely mandatory chores together, like making food and washing bottles, but we’d spend the rest of the hours snuggling our baby girl.  Maybe we’d explore a little, taking a short road trip to do something fun, but most likely we’d hunker down at home and just all have each other’s company to relish in.  We certainly wouldn’t care if our house was presentable or if the laundry was done.  My goal to improve the present is to enjoy these summer evenings more, to stop looking at each evening as a list of tasks I need to complete to prepare for the next day and start looking at each evening as another chance to spend time with my favorite people in the world!