Your One Wild and Precious Life

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" — Mary Oliver

That question stopped me cold.

I have been busy my entire life. Productive. Helpful. Responsible. I have said yes when I meant no, filled my days with good things that quietly crowded out the essential things. Then I read Essentialism by Greg McKeown. And something shifted.

The Most Dangerous Word in the English Language is "Yes."

McKeown offers three liberating truths: "I choose to." "Only a few things really matter." "I can do anything, but not everything."

Madeleine L'Engle wrote, "It is the ability to choose which makes us human." And yet most of us surrender that ability dozens of times a day. John Maxwell put it plainly: "You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything."

That is not cynicism. That is freedom.

Protect Your Ability to Prioritize.

This is the insight that hit me hardest. It means solitude — Newton spent two years in near-total isolation writing Principia Mathematica. It means play — Einstein said the gift of fantasy meant more to him than his talent for absorbing knowledge. And it means keeping a journal, to become, as McKeown puts it, a journalist of your own life. Use your journal to help you write your letter.

Questions Worth Asking

What am I deeply passionate about?

What taps my talent?

What meets a significant need in the world?

Do you passionately love your family?

Do you have the talent and ability to write a letter?

Your grandchildren need the wisdom from your life stories.

Write a letter to your grandchildren and change the world.