Is This the Life You Want?

Recently my wife and I watched a movie called “I’m Fine, Thanks.” It’s a documentary about several people who reach a breaking point in life and respond by doing something unconventional.

Several of the featured people achieve financial success but realize they’re miserable. One couple decides to pay cash for a 300-square-foot house and focus on simplicity. One man decides to ditch a prosperous career as an attorney to start a yoga studio in New York City. A family decides to drop everything and start riding their bikes; they ride from the Pacific Northwest to South America.

Themes in the film include having the courage to pursue your dreams, downsizing, not delaying your dreams until retirement, getting away from the tyranny of material possessions, unconventional living, and the importance of spending time with one’s children.

See the trailer below.

I’m Fine, Thanks – Trailer from Grant Peelle on Vimeo.

It was the kind of film that makes you think—about your life, about the choices you’ve made, about the path you’re on. It’s the kind of film that compels you to ask, Is this the life I want?

The film reveals the enormous pressure we are under to live a certain way. The difficulty of coming into awareness of this pressure cannot be overestimated.

It’s like a fish becoming aware of the water it swims in. Fact is, if that water becomes really polluted, the fish becomes aware of it very quickly and, I suspect, does all it can to find clean water. But if the water has a low level of pollution, the fish probably just lives with it, right? It swims on, does the aquatic equivalent of coughing every now and again, and that’s it.

That’s what I do. That’s what we do. We sense the life we’re in is slightly messed up, slightly off center, but it’s not terrible. We can manage it. Cough. It’s okay. So we settle. Cough. We get up the next morning. Cough, cough. Brew the coffee and do what we have to do to pay the rent or mortgage.

But there’s this little voice in the back of our minds. It’s subtle; it’s inaudible most of the time. But it’s there. And it whispers, “You don’t have to do this. There is another way.”

I’ll ask you the same question I’m asking myself: What’s one thing you can do today to turn the volume up on that little voice?

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Categories: Goals, Inspirations, Life, Work Habits

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8 thoughts on “Is This the Life You Want?”

  2. Chad, your post resonated with me.

    My perception of what is and isn’t truly important changed several years ago when our oldest child almost died. It was a long, difficult season, but praise God, He has worked it together for good.

    By putting off all the goals and dreams we have in life is intentionally diminishing God’s ability to align our desires with His.

    • Thanks, Cynthia! It’s not always easy to make the connection between our dreams/goals and God’s dreams/goals for us. Obviously we have to be cautious before drawing a one-to-one relationship, but generally I think the connection is a valid one.

  3. Documentaries are my favorite, I’ll add this one to our list, thank you for sharing it.

    Each step forward in my life happens with a little hesitation and uncertainty. I know I’m not living God’s fullest when I allow my fears to hold me back. Turning up the volume for me, means listening less to my insecurities and listening more to God’s strong guidance and hand in my life.

  4. I love this post.

    I think to hear the voice better, you obey the one thing it’s telling you to do. You do the one thing that is too scary to do. Just one thing. And then the next day it’s easier to do that one thing. And the next it’s even easier. And then the voice tells you to do one more thing. And you do that.

    If you ever stop doing the one thing, you won’t get the next thing. You just stagnate right there where you are. The longer you resist, the quieter the voice gets, but the more you obey the more easily you hear the voice.

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