The Three Most Important Things in Life

About a year and a half ago, I was asked what I believed to be the three most important things in life. I posted my response to my Blog at that time but some time has passed since then and I recently took another look at it to make sure I believed the same as I did back then.

This was the original question asked: "The 3 most important things in life....In Life we all encounter success, happiness, pleasure, despair, failure, suffering, frustration, the unlovingness of our own hearts and of those around us, and so on and at the end of it all we know some day we are going to die but we love struggling. The struggle of aspiration and achievements never comes to an end and throughout the journey we follow certain principles, morals and ethos. What, according to you, are the three most important things in life?"

In the original discussion that ensued, many responses from others included "happiness." If you have attended any of my keynote sessions, you already know I don't subscribe to happiness being the result of anything. So, here is the answer I wrote:

Although happiness seems to be prevalent in the other answers, I do not believe that happiness is the result of anything: it's a choice. No job, no spouse, no amount of money, no thing or person will ever deliver lasting happiness (momentary joy perhaps but not lasting happiness). Therefore, happiness is not on my list.

Here is my list of the three most important things in life:

1. Mission/Purpose - something to wake up to every day and look forward to accomplishing. Some of us do it in our work. Others do it in off-hours away from work. Having a mission for your life gives your life meaning and purpose.
2. Integrity/Values - knowing the difference between right and wrong and having something to stand for. As the saying goes, if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.
3. Appreciation/Thankfulness - from self and others. Being able to count one's blessings daily gives you a positive perspective. Feeling appreciated for your contributions makes one want to contribute even more. I call it gr-Attitude.

Three things. Three very important things. All leading to success.

What are your three?
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE

Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email

Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns

Do It "On-Purpose"

The key component in business success is the "why?" Why are you going to work each day? Why does it matter if you go? Why do you have passion? Why do you work hard? Why? Why? Why?

If anyone says it's for the money, they're doomed to follow the money and not the reason people give it to them - it will soon dry up.

If anyone says it's to survive, then that's what they'll do: survive - not succeed, just survive.

If someone says it's because this is my "purpose" then that's how they'll conduct themselves. There will be a purpose to every decision, relationship, hard work and focus. Timing won't matter because your purpose and your service will align. Some call that dumb luck. It's not dumb. And it's not luck. People who have dumb-luck usually have bad luck right behind it so it all balances out.

Have a reason to get out of bed every morning, have a reason to serve customers well, have a reason to treat everyone with respect, have a reason to create meaningful relationships, have a reason to be successful and you will find that you will receive all that is reason-able.

This is not some airy-fairy new-age crap at all. This is tried, tested and true. Have an attitude of "on-purpose" for everything you do and do it "on purpose" and you'll be surprised at how much you see positive changes in your business and career.

--