"LIFE continuously presents us with difficult choices. Do we start our own business or stay in our (relatively) safe job? Do we absorb the high cost of health insurance or risk going uncovered because we're healthy now? Do we get the screening colonoscopy? Do we get married? Do we have children? Do we choose what's behind door #1 or door #2?
The argument that articulating to ourselves and living by a personal 'mission' statement describing the broadest type of value, or contribution, we want to make to the world will increase not only our happiness but also our resilience...Sometimes we lose sight of who we truly were before the world got a hold of us, shook us around, landed us on our heads and made us doubt ourselves and capabilities but most importantly, our dreams. Dreams are meant to be 'achieved' and do not let anyone or any circumstance tell you different. Take the time and make the effort to find out what you want. It does not take much to get back to who we want to be but it does takes 'hard work', 'patience' and 'perseverance'...
The 'reason' we're all here is to 'enjoy' ourselves, to be "happy, 'successful' and at ease." Though this may sound like a license for lasciviousness and hedonism, in reality it's far from it: enjoying ourselves, as most of us know from experience, is far harder than it sounds. "What do you want?" What question could be more basic—or more imperative—to answer? The narratives of our lives are 'driven' ultimately by the 'desires' we feel. But as simple as the question may be, identifying the answer is often anything but... Whether we realize it or not, at every 'moment' we 'stand' devoted to something—something which we 'cherish' and 'love' above all others. It's the thing to which we orient all our resources, all our interest, and all our hope...
I remember thinking when I turned thirty not only that it wasn't so bad, but that it was actually pretty great. I felt I'd come to the end of the beginning of my life, had lived it vigorously, honestly, and meaningfully, and as a result was well-prepared to launch forward into the middle of it.
My entire life I've believed, that "the unexamined life isn't even worth living... I find myself now, being in the twilight years of my life, feeling something I didn't expect: "GRATITUDE". Being 'Thankful' for all the blessings of family and friends love and support...I say I didn't expect it because what I thought I would feel at this point is more a 'GRAND' sense of accomplishment..."