I have found it powerful to orient my life around a single word.
A word that keeps the end in mind. A north star that, if I follow it over the course of my life, will help me live the way I want to live—and hopefully leave me with few regrets at the end.
It might feel morbid to think about the one word you’d want written on your tombstone. But that’s what makes the exercise so clarifying.
If you live with an awareness of how you ultimately want to be remembered, you’re more likely to live according to your deepest values. You’re less likely to get swept up in daily distractions, other people’s expectations, or things that seem important in the moment but don’t really matter.
For me, that word is:
Explore.
I want to build my life around exploration.
Going. Seeing. Doing. Experiencing all that this world has to offer. Making the most of this one precious life.
The funny thing is, this is not necessarily my natural tendency.
Left to my own devices, I can be a homebody. My default state is often inside, on my own, doing what is familiar and comfortable.
And while that may feel good in the moment, I’ve realized it isn’t always aligned with the way I want to live—or with the moments when I feel most alive.
We have a relatively limited amount of time here. I want to experience as much of life as I can. And for me, those experiences become even more meaningful when they’re shared with people I care about—my family and close friends.
I want to travel. Play sports. Explore nature. Drink a great glass of wine. Take long walks. Move my body. Wander through a bookstore. Laugh with friends. Savor my morning coffee.
All of that fits within my definition of explore.
Exploration doesn’t necessarily need to mean climbing Everest or flying to the other side of the world. It can simply mean being engaged with life rather than watching it pass by.
I don’t believe life is meant to be spent sitting in an office all day, every day. Work matters, of course—especially when it involves a mission, product, or cause you care about. Doing something that improves other people’s lives is a worthwhile pursuit.
But work is still only one part of life.
When life presents me with new experiences, my instinct is sometimes to say no. Stay home. Keep things easy. Stick with the familiar.
The person I want to become says yes more often.
When I reflect at the end of a good day, the highlight is rarely something I accomplished sitting at a desk. It is usually getting outside, going somewhere, moving my body, trying something different, or spending meaningful time with someone I care about.
Even when I wake up in the morning and think about what I’m most looking forward to that day, it’s usually something experiential: watching one of my kids play sports, grabbing a drink with my brother, playing tennis, going for a run, having dinner with friends, or doing something fun with my team at work.
It is never scrolling social media.
It is never sitting at my desk for hours on end.
That gives me a useful signal. When I notice myself slipping too far into passive habits, I know I probably need to change my environment and get back to my word:
Explore.
There’s an old recommendation that we should take 10,000 steps a day for our health. The exact number probably matters less than the deeper idea behind it.
A person who walks a lot is usually participating in the world.
Those steps might come from a hike in nature, a morning run, a walk through town with a friend, exploring a new city, or playing tennis with a few buddies.
Movement creates experience.
And experience makes life feel more alive.
Your word will probably be different from mine. That’s the point.
Start to ask yourself:
What is your life word?
Then start building your days around it.