I remember seeing an interview with Usain Bolt a few years ago.
Amongst the other questions the interviewer asked him “Out of the 100 billion or so people that have ever lived, you’re the fastest one. How does that make you feel?”
It was a way of phrasing it that took him aback a little as he’d not thought of it that way before.
And it might be an interesting way to look at our own lives.
It’s a near daily conversation that I have with people where they express unhappiness with their lives.
“Everything’s sh*t” is a common phrase I hear.
A quick exploration quickly identifies many things that are going between ‘okay’ and ‘well’ in their lives.
But just things that they’ve taken for granted.
A given.
Expected behaviour, results and situations.
Focusing only on the things that aren’t quite where they’d like it to be.
We could ask ourselves: out of the 100 billion people that have ever lived, how many of them really had a better overall quality of life than us?
100 years ago no one had running hot water and central heating.
Healthcare and support for the disadvantaged was between non-existent and minimal for most.
Most would have had little in the way of time off work and died young after decades of backbreaking work.
In 1800, one in three children didn’t make it to their fifth birthday and over 80% of the world’s population lived on the equivalent of £2 a day in modern money.
Even today, billions of people live with far fewer comforts and opportunities than many of us do.
None of this is to diminish the challenges we are all going through.
But helping put it in context overall can be powerful for how we feel about our life and how we deal with these challenges.
If we have a better quality of life than the vast majority of people who have ever lived, it’s worth letting that shape how we see today.
Much love,
Jon ‘Usain Dolt’ Hall
P.S. Happiness with where we are at AND a desire to improve things are not mutually exclusive. Jump in at www.myrise.co.uk/apply for proven help in making lasting changes to body and mind!
