Something to think about today

[jacuzzigal]

JG, I like that alot.

Here is one I heard yesterday I like as well...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.

When was the last time we each had our breath taken away from us?

I can't remember...

 

[Darkknight2010]

When was the last time we each had our breath taken away from us?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... about six months ago, visiting someone out west.

 

[dcraz]

I can see I never answered my own question here, but apreciate those that have.

Oddly, the times we have our breath taken away, are not always the times we take another's breath.

The last time I had my breath taken away, sadly, was a number of months ago. I was told however, that I took someone elses breath away fairly recently.

Gives me something to think about, and something to work towards...

 

[Cathleen]

I just received this in an email.



To be content with little is hard; to be content with much is impossible.

-Marie Ebner-Eschenbach

 

[Darkknight2010]

I just received this in an email.



To be content with little is hard; to be content with much is impossible.

-Marie Ebner-Eschenbach

A friend of mine did accounting for a while for folks who were in the six digits. Naturally I mentioned how much easier it would make things to have that much money.

She said all you end up doing is find more ways to spend the more money you have.

... oh well, still worth hoping for. chuckle.

 

[dcraz]

A friend of mine did accounting for a while for folks who were in the six digits. Naturally I mentioned how much easier it would make things to have that much money.

She said all you end up doing is find more ways to spend the more money you have.

... oh well, still worth hoping for. chuckle.

At the risk of getting deep here...

The danger in wealth is the potential to become distrated by our material positions or the act of acquiring them. Taking our attention away from those things that matter most. Namely faith, family, friends. Those very things that you can have even without welath when you have so little to distract you.

 

[Darkknight2010]

At the risk of getting deep here...

The danger in wealth is the potential to become distrated by our material positions or the act of acquiring them. Taking our attention away from those things that matter most. Namely faith, family, friends. Those very things that you can have even without welath when you have so little to distract you.

Ain't that the truth. A friend of mine is rather obessed with owning things that are reeeeeeal high quality, blah, blah, blah... and I'm thinking 'Um.... do you HAVE to spend twice as much for that when the other will do?'

Granted, I can be annoying materialistic about some things (300 piece toy collection isn't exactly living frugally. ) but there's that line where you have to realize the STUFF doesnt' mean a lot of there's no one to share with.

Not that you should be surrounded by people all the time either, but it's interaction with others that helps us really feel human.

 

[Darkknight2010]

Masters are people who
haven't learned everything-
and they know it.

Robert Henri

I LOVE 'Crouching Tiger, HIdden Dragon', but a lof of the Zen philosophy drove me NUTS because I kept thinking 'Um, yeah, sure, whatever.' Classic line is 'We know nothing'. I started therapy about 4 years ago (For a looooooooong list of reasons, but that's another story) and I finally started to realize how true that statement is, like the quote above.

We really DON'T know anything; our lives are often clouded by a bagillion pre-conceived notions, illusions, fallacies, EVERYTHING. All of it masks what we THNK we know and understand. Usually the truth is in front of us, but we're too afraid/blind/whatever to accept it.

 

[jacuzzigal]

Our brightest blazes of gladness
are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.

Samuel Johnson

 

[dcraz]

DK and JG,

I think in an off hand way, you are each saying the same thing. We really must learn to understand how little we truly know and how little influence we have on things outside of our control. So much of our perceived hapiness is based on expectations and beliefs we have formulated to our own perceptions.

We must each learn our own balance in life. To take life as it comes, to apreciate what life brings us each day on it's own terms. And understand that we, and not these external circumstances control our hapiness. For when we learn to accept what is presented to us, we can apreciate the good, dismiss much of the bad and accept the joy that is life around us.

Our friends, our family and our hapiniess with ourselves is the foundation we each need to realize how blessed we are. It is in these things, that I find the most joy and hapiness day in and day out. And each of you play a very special part in that hapiness.

 

[Darkknight2010]

DK and JG,

I think in an off hand way, you are each saying the same thing. We really must learn to understand how little we truly know and how little influence we have on things outside of our control. So much of our perceived hapiness is based on expectations and beliefs we have formulated to our own perceptions.

We must each learn our own balance in life. To take life as it comes, to apreciate what life brings us each day on it's own terms. And understand that we, and not these external circumstances control our hapiness. For when we learn to accept what is presented to us, we can apreciate the good, dismiss much of the bad and accept the joy that is life around us.

Our friends, our family and our hapiniess with ourselves is the foundation we each need to realize how blessed we are. It is in these things, that I find the most joy and hapiness day in and day out. And each of you play a very special part in that hapiness.

Dude, you're gonna make me cry.

It all comes down to balance. You balance the things in your life, and that helps you move along the path.

 

[dcraz]

Tonight I have a request

Ok, so we have discussed what makes us hurt and what makes us happy. And how to achieve this happiness in our lives.

But the last few weeks, I have found some very good friends hurting. Hurting for understanding, or compassion or love. Hurting from illness, or circumstance or betrayal. Even I have been there too. Some of you know this first hand.

Which got me to thinking what I have done for others in these circumstances. I have tried to be there for them. To provide support and encouragement. To offer a sounding board, a soft shoulder to cry on, a sympathetic ear. But have I REALLY been them for them. Have I provided the kind of friendship or love and support they really needed? Or was I just being there enough to make myself feel like I was helping. In other words, have I been there for them, or have I really just been there for me?

Perhaps I need to do a better job of listening and putting myself in their place before I offer up my own sense of what I think they need in the way of support. Perhaps I will try to be a better friend to those that have been there for me and those that need my friendship now.

Just my thoughts for myself today...

 

[Darkknight2010]

Ok, so we have discussed what makes us hurt and what makes us happy. And how to achieve this happiness in our lives.

But the last few weeks, I have found some very good friends hurting. Hurting for understanding, or compassion or love. Hurting from illness, or circumstance or betrayal. Even I have been there too. Some of you know this first hand.

Which got me to thinking what I have done for others in these circumstances. I have tried to be there for them. To provide support and encouragement. To offer a sounding board, a soft shoulder to cry on, a sympathetic ear. But have I REALLY been them for them. Have I provided the kind of friendship or love and support they really needed? Or was I just being there enough to make myself feel like I was helping. In other words, have I been there for them, or have I really just been there for me?

Perhaps I need to do a better job of listening and putting myself in their place before I offer up my own sense of what I think they need in the way of support. Perhaps I will try to be a better friend to those that have been there for me and those that need my friendship now.

Just my thoughts for myself today...

The hardest part at moments like this is dealing with the fact that maybe you CAN'T do anything.

Often the worst demons and dragons in our lives have to be faced alone. It's not because you aren't loved or no one cares, it's the fact some things have to fixed within your heart and soul ONLY. No one can fix those things or help you in that situation... it's either you walk and face the dragon alone, or you don't do it at all.

Althogh it's moments like that were empathy comes in... where someone who will listen and support comes in... it's like the line from 'Return of the King': I can't carry the ring for you, but I can carry you!' Certain burdens can't be shared, but we just do what we CAN DO.

 

[babydoll2u]

The hardest part at moments like this is dealing with the fact that maybe you CAN'T do anything.

Often the worst demons and dragons in our lives have to be faced alone. It's not because you aren't loved or no one cares, it's the fact some things have to fixed within your heart and soul ONLY. No one can fix those things or help you in that situation... it's either you walk and face the dragon alone, or you don't do it at all.

Althogh it's moments like that were empathy comes in... where someone who will listen and support comes in... it's like the line from 'Return of the King': I can't carry the ring for you, but I can carry you!' Certain burdens can't be shared, but we just do what we CAN DO.

very wise words, my friend...

 

[dcraz]

The hardest part at moments like this is dealing with the fact that maybe you CAN'T do anything.

Often the worst demons and dragons in our lives have to be faced alone. It's not because you aren't loved or no one cares, it's the fact some things have to fixed within your heart and soul ONLY. No one can fix those things or help you in that situation... it's either you walk and face the dragon alone, or you don't do it at all.

Althogh it's moments like that were empathy comes in... where someone who will listen and support comes in... it's like the line from 'Return of the King': I can't carry the ring for you, but I can carry you!' Certain burdens can't be shared, but we just do what we CAN DO.

DK,

Thank you for the response. I think these are indeed wise words and observations. And I know you are right. That some of these demons do need to be faced alone. Still, I like to think we can lean on the strength of friends around us. Friends that can provide the support we need, even if it is in absentia.

I have too many friends recently that are hurting or suffering. Some due to outside forces and some due to inner demons. Still, I am a comassionate person. My heart goes out to them and I want to do anything I can to help. And I need to understand that keeping my distance is sometimes more valuable than forcing myself on them. Maybe they do not want the help. Maybe they do not need it. Maybe my help is anything but.

I have learned that I need to have faith in my friendships and trust my friends to take the help I offer if they need it. And know that it is available at any time if they chose to fight their battle alone.

As always, thank you for your wonderful insight.

DC

 

[Darkknight2010]

DK,

Thank you for the response. I think these are indeed wise words and observations. And I know you are right. That some of these demons do need to be faced alone. Still, I like to think we can lean on the strength of friends around us. Friends that can provide the support we need, even if it is in absentia.

I have too many friends recently that are hurting or suffering. Some due to outside forces and some due to inner demons. Still, I am a comassionate person. My heart goes out to them and I want to do anything I can to help. And I need to understand that keeping my distance is sometimes more valuable than forcing myself on them. Maybe they do not want the help. Maybe they do not need it. Maybe my help is anything but.

I have learned that I need to have faith in my friendships and trust my friends to take the help I offer if they need it. And know that it is available at any time if they chose to fight their battle alone.

As always, thank you for your wonderful insight.

DC

Don't give me too much credit, DC. Im just a guy who's going through therapy and trying to get this head outta his butt. chuckle.

... naturally, being able to spew this stuff is one thing, DOING it... shrug.

 

[DLL]

Imagine...There is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do?? Draw out ALL OF IT, of course!!!!

Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft.

Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow". You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success!.The clock is running. Make the most of today.

To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.

To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.

To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask the person who just missed the train.

To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask the person that avoided an accident.

To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND. ask the person that came in second in the Olympics.

Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time.

And remember that time waits for no one. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present!!!

Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed. They make you smile and encorage you to suceed. They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they always want to open their heart to us..

 

[Darkknight2010]

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Almost forgot to post this!!!!!!!!!!

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

 

[dcraz]

Imagine...There is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do?? Draw out ALL OF IT, of course!!!!

Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft.

Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow". You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success!.The clock is running. Make the most of today.

To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.

To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.

To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask the person who just missed the train.

To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask the person that avoided an accident.

To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND. ask the person that came in second in the Olympics.

Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time.

And remember that time waits for no one. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present!!!

Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed. They make you smile and encorage you to suceed. They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they always want to open their heart to us..

Thanks for the Post DLL.

Those who know me know I already live life to the fullest. I wake each day excited by the unknown and anxious to explore the gift of another day. A day of opportunity. A new beginning. I am always tired and it is because I never get enough sleep. Why? Because there is always something I want to do more than sleep. I am never bored and openly wish for more hours in a day to do all the things in life I want to do.

One of the many thing I cherish about each new day, is the chance to spend time with friends and meet new ones. Because I am so busy with all my commitments for time (family, work, volunteering, public service, etc.), my time is always at a premium. So I have few friends. But the friends I do have, I would do and have done anything for. They have been there for me when I needed them most and I will always endeavor to be there for them.

I know how precious time is and I know how important special friends are. And I treasure them both.

 

[Darkknight2010]

I've mentnioed this on the 'what feeds your soul' thread, but thought I would throw it out here as well.

The two most important things in life; love and hope.

 

[Darkknight2010]

Just got this quote.

What we do for ourselves dies with us;
what we have done for others and for the world remains and is immortal.

Albert Pike

 

[Darkknight2010]

Bump.

 

[dcraz]

My appreciation for life

DK, Thanks for the bump.

Bear with me for a moment as this might seem a little heavy today.

As many of you know, for the first time in my life, I have had a number of people very close to me die. Almost all of these deaths were sudden and unexpected. And almost all of them were tragic in their own way.

This is not something I have experienced before, so this is new ground for me. It has caused me to think about my own place in life and those around me. How would I react if I found I was dying soon? How would the people near me react to my death? My family, my wife, my children, my friends, my co-workers.

This combined with the commencement letter DK posted above led me to appreciate a few things that were mentioned.

1) Steve Jobs wrote about the importance and value of doing what you love to do. Some of us work. Some of us don’t have to. But he illustrates how important it is do what you love to do. To have passion and give freely of ourselves. How many of us have that today? I am lucky to have a wonderful job that I love. After 20 years, I still hop out of bed and look forward to the drive to work. I enjoy my job, the people I work with and cannot imagine the drudgery of heading a job I hate.

I have a very good friend that will be going back to a job he loves starting Monday. He left this job in pursuit of another that required less time away from his family and a little more pay. But at the end of the day, he had no passion for it. He missed the people and the challenge of his previous job. So Monday he goes back. Back to a job he loves. And he has the support of his family that understands how much this means to him. And how important that can be to their entire family. How wonderful for him to have such a supportive and understanding family.

This is not exclusive to paying jobs. I know many stay at home moms, including my lovely wife. Many of these women left successful careers for something they felt was more important. A job that has more personal satisfaction and long term value to their family. A job they take very seriously. They have passion and they have pride. As well they should. And yet, it is unfortunate that so many of these stay at home moms are criticized for the decisions they made to sacrifice careers and money in the name of staying home and raising kids. It is a job they love. And one that provides them a great deal of satisfaction and self worth. To them, I say “Good for you!”

Not everyone has the luxury of finding a job they love or being able to make the decision to stay at home to raise the kids. But it is important to keep things in perspective. To do the best job you can. To create personal satisfaction in your own little word. Whether at work or at home. Pursue something, anything for which you have passion. If not your job, your hobby. Go to school, take a class in something that interests you. Join a club. Take up a sport. Learn to play an instrument or take an art class. Find something to excite you and make the best of each day.

2) Steve Jobs also spoke of death. He said “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” Or a similar thought. If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, how would you live today? How would you go about your job? Your interaction with others? It is an interesting perspective on life. Do we live each day to the fullest? Would we got to bed on our last night with any regrets?

I try hard to keep each day in perspective. Especially those trying days. When I am upset. or when I have something unpleasant to do. How truly important are these events in the long run?

I realize how truly blessed I am. I am fortunate to have a job I love for the last 20 years. One that not only challenges me and excites me, but one that provides a very good living for me and my family. I have a wonderful wife and three fantastic kids. I spend most days happy and excited and wake each morning looking forward to the new day. The hope, the opportunity, the excitement.

Are these things the result of direct intent on my part? Or are they the result of luck and circumstance? I am inclined to believe the latter, but that does not lessen the appreciation I feel for what I have. Regardless of how I came to have it.

So today I want to say thank you. Thank you to my family, my co-workers and my online friends here. Each playing a very important part of my cherished life.

DC

 

[Darkknight2010]

DK, Thanks for the bump.


1) Steve Jobs wrote about the importance and value of doing what you love to do. Some of us work. Some of us don’t have to. But he illustrates how important it is do what you love to do.

YW, DC

I've been doing the same job for bout 10 years now; phone work for insurance companies. Oh well, it pays. Anyway, the search contines on what to do now. What's the next career? I've been doing this so long, I'm in this interesting niche of working at phone centers. Granted, there are MUCH worse jobs... but being stapled to a phone... well...

But I LOVE to write. I remember starting my webpage and thinking 'Ooohhhh... I'll learn HTML and make money'. Then it hit me that i loved the WRITING more then anything else.

So here I am, budding screenwriter also contemplating being a novelist. Sigh. The odss are VERY much stacked against me... and I don't care. At least I have a paying job that lets me live pretty comfortably and I can write as time affords and not worry about living in a box.

In a perfect world I would have sold 3 scripts and be the first screenwriter on 'MTV Cribs'. (Still one of my goals. lol!)

Meanwhile, trudging along... finding the path... it's out there.. just gotta fight for it.

 

[dcraz]

YW, DC

I've been doing the same job for bout 10 years now; phone work for insurance companies. Oh well, it pays. Anyway, the search contines on what to do now. What's the next career? I've been doing this so long, I'm in this interesting niche of working at phone centers. Granted, there are MUCH worse jobs... but being stapled to a phone... well...

But I LOVE to write. I remember starting my webpage and thinking 'Ooohhhh... I'll learn HTML and make money'. Then it hit me that i loved the WRITING more then anything else.

So here I am, budding screenwriter also contemplating being a novelist. Sigh. The odss are VERY much stacked against me... and I don't care. At least I have a paying job that lets me live pretty comfortably and I can write as time affords and not worry about living in a box.

In a perfect world I would have sold 3 scripts and be the first screenwriter on 'MTV Cribs'. (Still one of my goals. lol!)

Meanwhile, trudging along... finding the path... it's out there.. just gotta fight for it.

DK,

Whatever you do, don't ever stop chasing that dream. I write for relaxation and escape. I enjoy it and it's fun, but it is not a passion of mine (although I often write of passion ).

My mother dropped out of highschool in the 50's to get married and start a family. She did not graduate, but later got her GED. She always considered herself less smart than everyone else. She was a wonderful stay at home mom that raised a wonderful family. After we kids grew up and moved out, she started writing as a hobby that quickly turned into a passion. One day she decided to write a book. She was so insecure about it and was so self defeated. But she stayed with it. She had a lot ofree time once everyone left the house. So she researched and researched and joined writing groups for support and advice.

Five years ago, she got her first book published. Was actually paid and saw he work published and for sale in book stores. It was one of the most proud moments of my life. To see her passion fulfilled. To see how proud she was. Knowing how hard and dedicated she was. She never gave up.

Never give up the dream! Whether it's writing or what ever we have passion for. It's what keeps us alive. Good luck to you!

DC