How will you use your gifts?
What choices will you make?
Will you follow your passions?
Will you follow dogma or will you be original?
Will you choose a life of ease or a life of service and adventure?
Will you wilt under criticism or will you follow your convictions?
Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong or will you apologise?
Will you guard your heart against rejection or will you act when you fall in love?
Will you play it safe or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?
When it’s tough, will you give up or will you be relentless?
Will you be a cynic or will you be a builder?
Will you be clever at the expense of others or will you be kind?
Welcome to the ultimate existential question- how do I create a beautiful, fulfilling life for myself? Most of us will ask ourselves this time and time again without taking action to affect change and transform our circumstance. CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, struck gold with the advice he shared during his 2010 commencement speech at Princeton University. It’s safe to say he’s onto something.
When you are eighty years old and engaging in a quiet moment of reflection, narrating for yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most meaningful is the series of choices you have made.
The purpose of Jeff’s speech, “We are what we choose” was to emphasise the difference between innate gifts and learned behaviours or choices. As he so put it, intelligence is a gift while kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy- they’re given, after all. Choices on the other hand can be difficult- you can seduce yourself with your gifts if you’re not careful and it’ll likely be to the detriment of your choices.
Simply put, no matter how successful you become, what you’ll care about most in hindsight is the choices you made to become established, to get you to the place you currently are. In other words, your journey should be prioritised over destination. In other words, no matter how successful you become, what you’ll end up caring about the most in hindsight isn’t the number of zeroes in your bank account but the domino effect of your actions along the way. Without the benefit of hindsight however, how can we tell if we’re on a path that we’ll be proud of twenty or thirty years down the track?
Jeff’s talk revolved around the period of time in which he first came up with the idea to start online book business, Amazon. He was unsure in those initial stages and realised that moving forward to put his plan in action would be a risky move. His boss at the time, whom he very much admired, agreed that it would be a solid idea and worth pursuing had he not already been in a good job. Imagine how vastly different Jeff’s life would be if he’d wavered in his faith and lacked the conviction necessary to take such a leap.
It was a hard choice, but, ultimately, I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn’t believe I’d regret trying and failing. I did suspect however that I would always be haunted by a decision not to try at all. After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion. I’ll always be proud of that decision.
Let this be your takeaway- the perfect choice doesn’t exist. However, in many ways, we become our choices. This is where the importance of building yourself a great story lies. The truth in life is that we’ll all make choices we later come to regret. It’s commonly known as failure but I much prefer trial and error. As we grow older, our goal should be to minimise the number of major mistakes to our name. Failure will always have negative connotations. From trial and error however, you come to appreciate the process you undertake to achieve an eventual result. It is much more encouraging. Here are Jeff’s twelve key questions to inspire deeper thought- while they aren’t capable of providing a foolproof recipe for professional success and personal happiness, they can act as guidelines and assist you in making choices that will challenge and change you for the better. Here’s to transcending mediocre circumstances. Not all of us will end up reaching the same dizzying height of success that self made billionaire and richest man Jeff Bezos did. However, there’s no reason we can’t or shouldn’t defy our limiting personal expectations and create a story worth telling.
Hey hun, great piece of writing once again 🙂 food for thought. I’m not sure if I’m missing it because I’m on my mobile phone right now but I don’t see the 12 questions?
Thank you so much for letting me know! I had accidentally published the wrong version of this post as I was working on my phone. Hard to see things and I completely missed the questions! Post is updated now if you’d like to see the rest x
Love these, I feel like I want to print them out and put them on my vision board! Life of service and adventure over a life of ease, for sure. Thanks so much for sharing this, hope you have a lovely weekend xx
Beautiful post, love the 12 questions! Definitely something I need to keep in mind more often x
How wonderful to hear! Thank you so much Wardah. What stuck out most to you?
Hope you are well x
I loved all the questions, but this one stuck out the most: “Will you play it safe or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?” I think we all need to take risks to gain the most in life!
I’m doing just amazing, hope you are too Maryam! ❤
This was great, thank you!!
Thank you for reading Arabella! So happy you enjoyed the post x
No problem!
This says it all … “WILL YOU FOLLOW DOGMA OR WILL YOU BE ORIGINAL?” Great questions for self reflection.
I do agree! It’s quite the profound list of questions. Nobody better to take it from either- Jeff Bezos is not only rich in a monetary sense but in spirituality and wellbeing.
Thank you for reading Tim! I hope you’re well.
Love love this post Maryam! Will try to keep these questions in mind everyday! 💗
Thank you so much for reading Francine! What resonated with you most? x
You’re welcome! I honestly can’t pick between when it’s tough, will you give up or will you be relentless or will you guard your heart against rejection or will you act when you fall in love! They’re both questions that resonated with me the most ❤
So glad to hear that. They are truly beautiful and thought provoking questions- I will have to make a point of considering them in my day to day!
Thought provoking post! Those 12 questions are indeed those that need to be asked.
I couldn’t have said it better. Thank you for reading love! x
My pleasure!
Great post Maryam 😊 love your writing and your passion about what you write. So much self reflection to do, but all exciting stuff!
You are such a sweetheart, thank you Chels! I’ve always enjoyed your posts. So much love and effort is put into them. Your lovely, creative energy always shines through x
What are you up to this weekend? Today I went for a walk around my little city and later on I’ll be going to dinner x
Thanks so much – means a lot! 😊 xx
This weekend I’m actually on morning shifts haha. Tomorrow is my last one! Then naps in the afternoon and just chill evenings. Slowly getting there with Blogmas! A walk sounds great, really need to do one soon to get some fresh air. Ooh yay! Have fun! Are you going for Turkish/Greek food? Haha enjoy! xx
These are such good questions! I especially love the one about whether something is tough! It’s really great thinking of the way you can overcome it! What’s your ultimate goal? Mine is to be a TV Show Host!
Yes! Mindset is key in overcoming all obstacles in life. If we get ourselves done, we cannot perform at our best. Being a TV show host sounds like a very fun and engaging job! My ultimate goal is to have my own interior design firm in The States x
This was so beautiful and thought provoking <3
Thank you so much Anna! x
These are brilliant questions! I always try to think about how to lead a more fulfilling life… It’s not always easy when our world is full of constant distraction! How do you know what’s you and what’s been influenced by marketing etc? These questions are really useful in cutting through that and really narrowing it down! xx
You’ve summed it all up perfectly here Mia! Modern life is full of mania and distractions that take us away from our true purpose. We aren’t here to consume and live a life of going through the motions. We’re here to change the system and touch the lives of others. What question resonated most deeply with you?
Hope you’re doing well love! x
A beautiful and deep post! This was something I needed to keep in mind. I’ll have this questions in mind to guide me as I grow ❤️
I’m very glad to hear that. Thank you for reading lovely! What question resonated with you the most?
Hope you’re well x
The question, will you follow your passion? I think this is something I should keep asking myself for the coming years.
Wow, great piece of writing📝
Truly something to keep in mind. I absolutely loved the 12 questions. Makes me think deep about everything.
I’m so happy to hear that. They are the perfect thoughtful questions, that’s for sure! x
Oh yes, absolutely 😍😍😍😍
Great post 🙌 thankyou for sharing this 💛
Thank you so much Asthaisha! You are too kind 🙂
(sorry it’s taken me so long to get to your posts – I had a really busy week) A lot of these questions hit me hard. Especially: how will you use your gifts? I’ve always wanted to be a writer, but before, all of my characters were white and able-bodied and looked the same. Then I started to realise that by writing black and disabled characters, I could touch a disabled person and show them that they were normal by showing someone who was just like them in a book. And I could help normalize disabilities in my books. Now I realise the impact of writing stories and how much power I have behind my pen – I should use that power wisely. Thank you for sharing this deep, introspective post I’m sure that you gave all of your readers something to think about!