When I was young, “having it all” meant three things:
– a million dollars
– a beautiful wife
– a big house and a fancy car
Today those things sound silly, not because they are not important, but because they’re not in any way all there is to the life I choose to live; a life in which I’m having it all!
The Spark:
It all started when I met with Joel Mark Harris, a writer, and an award-winning novelist. We had a spontaneous idea to write a book not from experience but as an experience. To walk the path ourselves and document every step of our work till completion.
The book is about everything anyone would need to write a book and have it all as a result. In this project, we explore the why what and how to write a book and make it a huge success, “having it all.”
The First Step:
We agreed that before we start walking the path we need to know where we want that path to lead, to explore what is it like to “have it all.”
So I went through my list of goals that I’ve edited and refined over the past few months:
- Brilliant Family: My family is happy, healthy, loving, caring, whole, complete, and joyous.
- Financial Freedom: I have $30K of passive income coming into my bank account every month.
- Ultimate Body Health: I’m healthy, fit, and my body is in ultimate condition.
- Thi Chi Master: I am a Thi Chi Master, and I practice it every day.
- Top 10 Blogs: My blog is one of the Top 10 blogs in the world.
- #1 LinkedIn Profile: My linkedIn profile is the #1 LinkedIn profile in the world.
- 30 Best Selling Book: My 30 books are all best-selling books that are enabling 1bn people to achieve the remarkable.
- 1000 Books: I’ve read 1000 of the best selling books in the world.
- Top 10 TED Talks: My TED talk is one of Top 10 TED Talks of all times
- West Van Home: I fully own and enjoy my gorgeous home in West Vancouver.
- $100,000,000: I have $100 million of tax-free disposable income that I’m free to do with it whatever I like.
The Question:
I’m very proud of my list of wonderful and grand goals that keep me focused and on point. And my first thought was; “having it all” meant achieving all my goals. Then I did something that changed everything! The key that shaped what it means to “have it all.”
I asked myself this question:
what is the one thing that if lost nothing else matters?
We go through life thinking everything would fall perfectly into place “if only I had” a better job, higher salary, more luck, loving wife, richer parents, successful business, influential friends… etc.
These thoughts cloud our thinking and divert our focus from the one thing that matters, the one that makes a difference, the one thing that if lost nothing else matters.
1. The Most Important Thing Is ONE
Once I asked myself that question, the answer came thundering back “a brilliant family”: a family that is happy, healthy, loving, caring, whole, complete, and joyous.
Of course, I want and desire all my goals, and some of them I badly need, like financial freedom. But asking that question threw all of my wants, desires and needs out of the window. This one key question brought my focus to the most important thing.
What was surprising is, it was only one thing! I tried asking myself, what else, and nothing was as loud or as clear.
If the question were what do you want, need or desire? I would start saying, this, this and that. But when answering the key question, there is only one answer.
2. The Future Is Now
My answer wasn’t “to have” a brilliant family in the future. It wasn’t a “someday” when the stars line up, and things work themselves out, great things will happen, and I will get my brilliant family.
I realized that a brilliant family is a way of being I’m committed to today; I work at it with every sunrise, and I’ve dedicated my life for it period. It was like I said the words and lived into them at the moment I said them.
With my answer to the question, what is the one thing that if lost nothing else matters? I got clarity that there is nothing more important than my brilliant family today, nothing that has more significance or even comes close.
My brilliant family is a now phenomenon. Unless I experience it at every living moment, life is not worth living, who I am, everything I have, and anything I do, all become irrelevant.
3. The One Thing Is Many Things
Can my family be happy, healthy, loving, caring, whole, complete, and joyous in a world that is not?!
That was my third and most powerful a-ha moment. My singular focus just gave my life purpose. A brilliant family is a never ending quest for every one of us to experience everyone else as part of their brilliant family.
My family is my wife and kids, sister, brother, mother, aunts, uncles, cousins, extended family, neighbours, colleagues, friends and friends of friends. My family is the world.
A brilliant family also includes me, so I must be happy, healthy, loving, caring, whole, complete, and joyous for my family to be that.
Start Your “Having It All” Journey Now
1. Write All Your Goals Down:
Goal setting and listing one’s desires, likes, wants and needs is a great exercise and a must for anyone who aspires to achieve anything worthwhile in life. But don’t stop there.
2. Engage In “Having It All” Conversations:
Explore what “having it all” means to you, engage in thoughtful, deep and more meaningful conversations around it.
3. Ask The Key Question:
What is the one thing that if lost nothing else matters?
Would love to hear from you, share your a-ha moments, what opened up for you as a result of reading this post and answering the key question? What did you discover? And what will you do now?
Hussein Hallak is a serial entrepreneur with 22+ years of startup experience in strategy, branding, marketing, and growth. Hussein started 6 successful companies, worked on projects for Fortune 500 companies and World’s Top 100 Brands, and was featured in Forbes, BBC, and Entrepreneur.
Currently Hussein is the Director of Strategy and Marketing at 3 Tier Logic, a shopper marketing and engagement software startup out of Vancouver, BC. Hussein is also the Director of Marketing at TEDxStanleyPark, Advisor at Spirit Games Ltd, Head Instructor – Lean Entrepreneur Program at LaunchAcademy and Founder of InspirationInbox.com.
Hussein lives to inspire possibility, to enable people, to achieve the remarkable.
Connect with him through his website, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram
