When was the last time you stopped to ask yourself, “How am I doing?” or “How is my life going?”
If you were to stop and contemplate those questions for a bit, how would you answer them? Be honest with yourself…how would you evaluate and define the current quality of your life?
I know, it’s a big question to sit with.
If you’re anything like me, perhaps the first answer that popped into your head was similar to the response you probably give when asked how you are doing. (You know the one.)
“My life is fine. Things are good!”
Or perhaps you’d add my personal favorite qualifier, “I’m busy. Good! But busy.”
It’s not that these answers aren’t truthful, but they’re, well, surface level at best. They don’t really get at the heart of the question:
“How is your LIFE GOING?”
How does one actually answer that question with truth and depth? Look at the fruit!
Alright, I’m going to throw a good ole’ fashioned garden analogy your way. (Let’s be honest, who doesn’t love a good nature metaphor?!)
Think of your life as a fruit tree. (For the sake of this analogy, you can choose your favorite variety. Personally, I like to imagine my life is a Bartlett Pear Tree.)
Over time, your tree is (hopefully) growing stronger and taller. Eventually, it begins producing fruit of some kind. Ideally, your tree would bear an abundance of ripe and delicious fruit. It would smell sweet and the leaves would be full of colorful fruits, ready to be enjoyed!
While this is, as I mentioned, the ideal scenario, if you’ve ever walked through an orchard, you know this isn’t always the case.
Sometimes, fruit trees have a lackluster harvest. Sometimes too much water (or not enough water) can make it difficult for fruit to grow. Other times, fruit may begin to ripen, only to be picked through by birds and bugs leaving each piece riddled with holes and bruised spots.
Not appealing, I must say.
The same is true in life.
Under ideal circumstances, our lives would produce “good fruit.” This fruit could be things like:
- Joy and excitement over new opportunities
- Patience with your children
- Kindness towards your in-laws
- Self-control with your habits and commitments
- A general sense of peace and contentment
This “fruit” is a sign that your life, as it currently stands, is probably pretty well balanced. We see good fruits when we are taking care of ourselves, our relationships, and our commitments well.
On the flip side, when our life is unbalanced, when our priorities are out of line or we’ve developed unhealthy relationships or habits, we will begin to see bruised or spoiled fruit. You may find yourself experiencing:
- Frequent feelings of anxiety
- Anger or irritability with friends or loved ones
- A lack of commitment to important life habits
- A general sense of overwhelm or discontentment
See what I mean?
We can often measure the quality of our lives based on the fruit we see in our daily experiences. It’s a ruler or benchmark that can help us evaluate whether we are on the right track OR if there are, perhaps, some changes and adjustments we need to make.
Now, it’s important to note that every single person will have a mixture of good days and bad days. You will have days that are filled with joy and peace and days when you snap at your partner and go to bed early with an ice cream bucket in hand.
That’s okay! It’s normal to have up’s and down’s.
As you consider the fruit of your life, focus on your life as a WHOLE rather than individual moments. What patterns do you see? Do you have more days filled with those good fruits we talked about? Or do you spend more days dealing with sour fruit?
As you begin to reflect on the fruit of YOUR life, I encourage you to take this Wheel of Life assessment. This quick and easy tool is a way to begin identifying areas of your life that may be a little out of balance.
Article was contributed by: Maria Lees, Team Writer with Sarah Boxx
