Are you living a life of no regrets? No seriously, are you. What do you have on your bucket list of things to do that you’ve been putting off either because of lack of time and/or resources? Maybe it’s a business idea that you haven’t pursued to its natural conclusion, maybe it’s a location you want to travel to or maybe it’s a hobby you haven’t taken up yet. All too often in life we put off things saying I’ll do that when I’m older, have more money etc and yet what happens if this time never arrives. I don’t want to go out of this world wishing there were things I had done, but failed to do because of fear, lack of resources or my failure to take action.
The phrase a life of no regrets is something I’ve coined from a mentor of mine Deri Llewellyn-Davies (aka The Strategy Man). Deri was inspired to live a life of no regrets after listening to the parting words of his father. Since that time Deri has been an adventurous daredevil climbing many of the words highest mountains. He was even on Mount Everest when the earthquake struck last year. You can listen to his incredible story in his TedEx talk F*** the Fear.
This year my own mortality has been brought sharply into focus as I’ve lost two good friends (very unexpectedly) and as my mum goes through cancer treatment again. My good friend Jacqs who terribly passed away after a car crash last weekend certainly lived life to the full. She was always the life and soul of the party and designed her life the way she wanted to – she lived life on her terms. I first met Jacqs when I was working at Andersen and she offered me a refuge when I split with my boyfriend. We had a wild time living together in London as she knew how to have fun. And it is Jacqs that I have to thank for my current business and lifestyle as she persuaded me to go on a ranching holiday with her back in 2000 and that re-ignited my passion for horses and then the eventual purchase of Toby my first horse.
Jacqs was committed to designing and living her life her way. After our time wrangling as cowgirls in Wyoming she decided she wanted to go and live in the US. Within a year she had managed to get her employer Deutsche Bank to transfer her to their New York office and she moved there just after 9/11. I’ll fondly remember that Christmas sitting in her New York apartment surrounded by packing boxes.
Then she decided she wanted to live in Montana. So blow me down that is what she does. She buys a property there and then persuades Deutsche Bank she can work remotely and in the process she gets promoted to Deutsche Bank’s Global Head of Supervisory Analysts. On paper you would never have imagined such a global firm would allow such a senior position to work remotely, let alone in Montana, and yet that is what happened. If she had allowed her logical brain to determine what was possible she might never had tried to make her dream come true. But Jacqs was resilient, steely, determined and tenacious and never had any doubt that this outcome was possible.
So what restrictions are you putting on your life? Where are you holding back and not doing what you want because you think it’s not possible. Jacqs is an example to us all that if you really desire something you can achieve it, however impossible it might initially seem.
Go forth and be the designer of your own life and share in the Facebook group what you want you life to be like, so that we can all support you on your journey.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
