The powerful lyrics of the Bon Jovi hit song released in the year 2000 summarise it all … It is your life and it is now or never! But, what is it that you – now or never – need to do in this life that you only live once?
It’s my life
It’s now or never
I ain’t gonna live forever
I just want to live while I’m alive
(It’s my life)
How do you find the equilibrium between the sorrows of yesterday, today’s hardship and the dreams of tomorrow? How do you offset the numerous pressures of everyday life and work? How do you balance the emotional, social and financial demands that need to sustain health and ultimately this life? And what about the next life? Or the lives of those that stay behind when you leave the stage of this life the final time?
I remember many years ago when we started our first company. It was a daunting experience. Humpty Dumpty did not jump, he was pushed. My brother was retrenched and for personal reasons I had to quit my job as minister in a congregation after eight years. Our securities as we then knew it were shattered. The lives we lived up to that point unruly ended.
We had to reset and restart. Putting together what we had, we decided to start a new venture. We tried to open a bank account, but the man from the bank said we cannot have a bank account (read financial wellness) in the absence of having formal company documentation (read structure).
Someone suggested we must get an auditor … I remember the first meeting with the new auditor. Glossy eyed we shared the vision of our future lives with him. He told us that he is expensive and bill by the hour. He asked what our exit strategy was …. I thought he was crazy – We did not want to exit, we wanted to start!
Years later he phoned me and asked me the following daunting question: “Are you really happy or do you just have a number of Pleasures?” I was startled and asked him what the definition of pleasures was. He replied as follows:
“Driving to work in your expensive car”, “Sitting behind your expensive desk”, “Going home to your expensive house in the expensive suburb”, “Going to the expensive restaurant”!
It was clear that he had a lot of pleasures, but no true joy or contentment. A few months after our chat his firm was sequestrated for fraudulent activities.
Without balance you will always only have several pleasures, but you will seldom be content!
It is against this backdrop that MyLife was born. We constantly need to find the balance between Emotional, Social, and Financial Health.
What are the building blocks to your Financial Wellness – or are you simply a financial survivor that lives from payday to payday; always one payslip from bankruptcy? What fills the tank that feeds your Emotional Wellness or simply leave you drained at the end of the day? What social realities currently build or destroy you?
Now, years later I realise the auditor was right in one thing he said. “What is your exit strategy”?
Because if you do not plan your last will and testament and the settlement of your estate today, that too will be the burden of your loved ones once you leave the stage the final time.
MyLife created a platform where you can begin with the end in mind, but also where you can make sure that you live this life while you’re alive.
Gerrit Stimie is CEO at Petros Business Solutions
My Life Mag is a proud product of My Life: https://mylife.co.za/