What Doesn’t
Being here counts. Being kind and considerate counts. Getting
through each day without seriously offending anyone or hurt-
ing anyone counts. Having the latest technology doesn’t.
Sorry, I don’t hate technology. In fact, I probably have pretty
much all the latest gizmos. I just (a) don’t overly rely too
much on any of it and (b) see them all as useful tools rather
than having any intrinsic meaning in themselves, in a status
symbol or one-up kind of way.
Doing something useful with your life counts. Going shopping
because you’re bored doesn’t. Yes, by all means go shopping,
but see what you do as counting or not counting, being real or
not being real, having real value or not, being of some benefit
or not. This does not mean chucking it all up and going off
to some fly-infested swamp to work with the locals and
catch malaria—although that in itself would count, but you
don’t have to go to quite those extremes to make your life
meaningful.
I guess the Rule means focusing on what is important to you
in your life and making positive changes to ensure you feel
happy with what you are dedicating your life to (see Rule 6).
This doesn’t mean long-term plans mapped out to the smallest
detail. It means knowing, roughly, where you are going and
what you are doing. Be awake rather than asleep. A fellow
author, Tim Freke, calls it “lucid living”*—a perfect term for
what we are talking about.
There are some things in this life that are important and a
whole lot of things that aren’t. It doesn’t take too much dis-
crimination to work out which are which. And there are a
whole lot more things that don’t count, aren’t really important,
to choose from. I’m not saying we can’t have trivia in our
lives—we can and it’s fine. Just don’t go mistaking the trivia
for what is really important. Having time for loved ones and
friends is important; watching the latest soap isn’t. Repaying a
debt is important; what brand of detergent you use isn’t.
Nurturing our children and teaching them real values is
important; dressing them in designer fashion isn’t. You get
the idea. Think about what you do that counts—and do more of it.
THERE ARE SOME THINGS
IN THIS LIFE THAT ARE
IMPORTANT AND A WHOLE
LOT OF THINGS THAT
AREN’T.
