What's your North Star?

What is the guiding light in your life? What is the #1 thing you live for, above all else? What's your North Star?

When you're young the question is easy, society tells us...

• In high school your North Star is to get into college
• In college your North Star is to land a job
• After landing a job the North Star becomes building a career

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?  This is the one-size-fits-all template we're told to follow.  Should our life's purpose center on building a stable career?  Is there more to life?  Is that really the #1 thing we live for? 

For the past 3 years I've been relentlessly searching for my North Star, for something to believe in, something to guide me.  It's been an epic journey and I've finally found it with the help of three difficult questions...

What are your 3 core values? What are the 3 most important values in your life?  Here's a list of nearly 400 values if you're looking for inspiration.  It's easy to pick dozens, the trick is boiling it down to the core three.  Take your time on this and really think it through, the more time you spend boiling this down the better, it took me about a month to come up with a decent answer and a year to come up with something I was happy with. 
1. What are the 5 daily experiences you hope to have in your life?
2. What does your perfect day look like? Include every detail, from the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep. What is your experience?  What's the color of the room you wake up in?  What's the first thing you do?  Do you eat breakfast?  If so, who do you eat with?  Spare no detail. 

Your answers to these three questions will inform your North Star.  Ideally your North Star will be 1 sentence that describes your current #1 goal in life.  It's a tool, you can use it to filter the choices you make in life.  Once you have your North Star, ask yourself if the things you're doing in life are bringing you closer to that goal.  If they are, keep doing them.  If they're not, pass. 

If you're looking for example answers to the three questions above, here are mine...

My North Star is to surround myself with people I admire and provide the freedom for us to collaborate on creative projects we're passionate about. 

My Core Values
• People
• Creativity 
• Freedom
My 5 daily experiences
• Love of a good woman
• Epic friendship
• Learning
• Building
• Nature's beauty
My perfect day
Wake up in a warm breezy room & make love to the beautiful woman next to me
Do something physically challenging
Enjoy coffee/tea with the beautiful woman
Collaborate with friends on epic projects
Have an epic dinner with people I care about while watching a gorgeous sunset
• Retire to bed with the beautiful girl I woke up next to