A short YouTube monologue by Bill Gallagher outlining three measures for judging success in living one’s purpose: (1) whether life is easier to navigate than before, (2) whether one’s life is increasingly meaningful, and (3) whether one is happier than in the past. The speaker emphasizes self-knowledge as a central obstacle to achieving these measures.
All the things that we try to achieve, like, you know, growing our businesses and with family and all that, that's all great, but at the end of the day, there's really three measures of success in living your life. The first is, is life easier now than it used to be? You know, life has its ups and downs. Reversal of fortune, loss of loved ones, poor health. That's inevitable. But are you better at navigating life's ups and downs now than you were a year ago? The second measure of our success in living our lives is are you on a path that fills you with more meaning now than you were a year ago in all aspects of your life? And then lastly, are you happier now than when you were a year ago? Are you happier now than when you were 5 years old? And tragically, for most of us, the answer is no. We've had 50 years, you and me, Bill, figuring out what makes us happy. We should be pretty darn good at it by now. The problem for most of us, though, is we don't know who we are. You know, we go through life accumulating stuff, trying to accomplish things without ever taking the time to ask, why are we doing this stuff in the first place?
