Eddie Izzard and the art of living a big life

We can’t all be like Eddie Izzard. We won’t all be able to run 43 marathons for charity or do stand-up comedy in French and Russian. Eddie lives his life with military precision and plans far into the future. I have no doubt he will fulfil his ambitions to become Mayor of London or an MP by 2020. But that’s Eddie for you – he’s a relentless superman.

However, if you are an ordinary mortal who went back to work this morning with a sense of dread rather than joy, you may benefit from an honest assessment of your life. And I’m not talking about resolutions. I’m talking Big Life Stuff. Steve Jobs big.

The Apple supremo left us many useful and beautifully designed things when he departed the earthly plane (I’m writing this on one of them), but he also shared many words of wisdom about life, and making every day count.

Here’s one quote of his that I found the other day, which bears repeating in full, with my favourite bit in italics: “When you grow up you get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live inside the world, try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice fam­i­ly, have fun, save a lit­tle money. That’s a very lim­it­ed life.

“Life can be much broad­er, once you dis­cov­er one sim­ple fact, and that is that every­thing around you that you call life was made up by peo­ple that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influ­ence it, you can build your own things that other peo­ple can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”

So, taking St Steve’s advice, if you’re doing a Big Life Assessment, bear those italics in mind. Everything around you was made up by people no smarter than you. So if you think that everything around you is pretty much OK, that’s fine. Relax and enjoy it. But if you reckon you could do better, then get involved. You have something unique to offer the world. There is no one else on the planet quite like you and there never will be again. So why not start to make your mark, in whatever way fulfils your own Big Life blueprint?

Eddie Izzard’s Big Life blueprint encompasses everything from Comedian and Transvestite to Marathon Runner, Actor and Member of Parliament. Who knows, he could become Prime Minister. I’d vote for him.

So ask yourself today, what would my Big Life look like?