My wife and I were walking around downtown Asheville, NC several years ago and there was a whole fence made into a blackboard on which you could write with some provided chalk. There was a prompt on the board, “Before I die, I want to…” People had written all kinds of interesting things. “Fall in love” “See Vietnam” “Visit my brother” “Change the world” “Create something beautiful” “Help my friend Angie” “Get sober” Hundreds of these were written there. My wife took up the chalk and wrote the best answer.
I’ve thought about that wall a lot since encountering it, specifically with regards to how we can use the lesson to improve our lives and our professional progression. I teach personal finances to the vet students, and a segment is about retirement planning. One of the questions is, “If you didn’t have to worry about money, how would you spend your time?”
I think this question is really important for determining your life priorities. Would they finish vet school? Would they go be a veterinary clinician and help animals? Would they travel the world? Spend time with friends and family? Donate the money to help the less fortunate?
Both of these questions help us distill down what is actually, truly, really important to us. So often we get sucked into the natural progression of our career. Finish high school. Go to college. Finish college. Go to vet school. Finish vet school. Go to practice or do an internship. Finish internship. Get a residency. Finish residency. Get a private practice job or become an assistant professor. Become an associate professor. Get promoted. Become a full professor.
It is an almost endless series of if-then statements about our life. Some of these may happen in your personal life, too. Get a decent job. Get married. Have kids. Send kids to school. Retire. Die.
So here’s the question. Before you die, what do you want to do with your life? We all only have a finite amount of time on this planet. You. Will. Die. How do you want to spend your finite amount of time? Do you want to spend it in school for 8 (or 12…) years? Do you want to help others? Do you want to have a wide variety of experiences? Do you want to create a great family setting for your kids? What do you want?
There’s no right answer, and everyone’s answer will differ. But I think this exercise is important, especially for those who struggle with whether they want to be a veterinarian. Or to specialize. Or to enter academia. Or with any other major decision in our lives. If you never ask the question, you are likely to just be swept along the current our society (or your family, or your friends) dictates. You won’t carve your own path.
If you answer this question now, a priori, it will help you make all future decisions. You can refer back to your answer to this question when you are faced with a decision. Will saying “yes” to that decision further you along the path you decided you want to pursue before you die? It’s similar to having a mission statement– it relieves the burden of deciding as much in the moment.
Fortunately for me, my wife’s answer perfectly guides our decision making in life. “Before I die, I want to keep doing this.”