'Seek opportunity, not security'
"Seek opportunity, not security. A boat in harbor is safe, but in time its bottom will rot out." — H. Jackson Brown Jr. About this photo: I took this photo in the Florida Keys in October Read more
'Love looks not with the eyes'
"Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind." - Shakespeare About this photo: I took this photo in Pacifica, CA on December 5, Read moreBecause for better of worse, I took a leap of faith — I jumped — and it’s been one of the scariest, most challenging, and most uncomfortable things I’ve ever done — so why do it?
“Men spend their lives in anticipations, in determining to be vastly happy at some period when they have time. But the present time has one advantage over every other, it is our own. Past opportunities are gone, future have not come. We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer the tasting of them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.” – Charles Caleb Colton
It comes down to how I saw my present life and envisioning where I saw myself ending up if I stayed on the same track and kept doing the same things over & over… my version of having a “Scrooge moment”.
This used to be an afterthought, but I decided to put this up front instead. I think it’s important…
I just want it to be clear, I think everyone should live their lives in the fashion they are most comfortable. While I’m thrilled if my actions or the things I write may inspire or motivate some, I don’t ever want them to be seen as me passing judgement on how other people live.
Live your life! Do whatever makes you happy! I don’t know what the key to success is, but I do know that you generally make more people around you happier just by doing what makes you happy.
“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.” – Eddie Robinson
My Life: “Option A” |
My Life: “Option B” |
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| Stick to a decent paying (but notoriously unstable) career of computer graphics with limited opportunities for career advancement.
Continue to invest my time & energies in helping someone else’s company profit, most likely at the expense of meeting my full potential. Working for companies where the type of role I play and my responsibilities are largely at the whim of others who are often looking out for their own best interest. Despite doing my best to excel at my job and doing more than I am asked, having to rely on others to take notice or to even care. Work in an industry where putting in unpaid overtime is common — sometimes to an extreme 50% or more of work-time being uncompensated for weeks or even months at a time — in a cubicle, under fluorescent lights, behind a computer screen and far removed from “real life”. Any opportunity to travel is typically limited to 10 or so days per year and it is often unrealistic to expect you will be able to get those 10 days in a row. Work in an overwhelmingly male dominated environment while sacrificing my personal life and further limiting the possibilities of crossing paths with my future mate. Often feel like there was more I could do, but not being able to do it within the confines of my “job title”. |
Not going where the oft-trodden paths lead, but instead paving my own path and leaving a trail.
Deliberately step beyond my comfort zone — and as a result, do daily battle with doubts & fears of the unknown. “I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.” — Wilson Mizner Choose an unconventional way of life — make short-term sacrifices, live uncomfortably, and delay gratification in order to do what is difficult and necessary to accomplish my goals. Take action to make the life I imagined a reality for myself by deliberately pursuing the things I’m most passionate about — traveling, writing, connecting with people, taking photographs, and hopefully living an adventure & a remarkable life. Invest all of my time & energies into taking charge of my life and changing it for the better and always striving to find a way to meet my full potential — Aiming high, knowing that even if I “fail”, I will have tried. Seek ways to directly help others by using my skills & experience. Increase my chances of meeting a mate by getting out of “the box” and making my presence known to the world — perhaps she’s reading this. The act of pursuing “option B” would automatically be part of the “adventure” in life that I seek. Calculated risk-taking and possible reward. |
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| Unlikely (in my opinion). | No guarantee, but far more likely than option A. |
| Reasonably comfortable — and comfort is nice, right? | Less comfortable, but living beyond one’s comfort zone leads to personal growth and anything that helps me become a better human being is a good thing (provided I don’t crack under pressure). ;) |
| Less risky than option B, but fewer opportunities to live the kind of life I desire. | Far more risky than option A, but more opportunities to live the kind of life I desire. And living a life without calculated risks is not the type of life I envisioned for myself. |
| Limited. | Unlimited. |
| Likely regret for not taking more risks and trying more things and going after what I really wanted out of life. Always wondering “what if”. | Perhaps I could do things more effectively or more efficiently, but I don’t regret making mistakes so long as I learn from the experience. |
| I would be sacrificing my dreams for the opportunity to live in reasonable comfort, but with few opportunities to take advantage of my full potential in life or my career. | Give up the illusion of stability, my possessions, and my former life as I know it.
Spend my limited savings that I could’ve invested or put into “property” in order to gamble on my ability to find a way to monetize my new life while pursuing my passions. |
| Hope for the best, but remain largely at the whim of others who decide my what kind of role I will play in my career. And by letting them have that much control over my career — they indirectly get a degree of control over my non-work life as well. | Take responsibility for my own life and take deliberate steps to create the type of future I want for myself in the manner than I desire.
Create my future. |
| Regret for the things I didn’t do. | Life would be a challenge. |
| A life of reasonable comfort & safety and decent jobs – but with limited opportunities to express myself or utilize the full scope of my skills and an unshakable feeling that “there has to be more to life than this” and that I wasn’t living up to my full potential.
In essence: A life of regret. I wanted more and I felt like I owed it to myself to try and create a better life for myself. But by “better”, I don’t mean acquire more “stuff”. I don’t consider having “stuff” to be a deciding factor in the quality of ones life — even if many people do. I think the degree to which one feels happy and fulfilled with their life and feels like they are fulfilling their potential as a human being is a much better thing to judge. |
A challenging life. Hard work & a degree of deliberate discomfort.
A life less ordinary involving more risk-taking & more potential for personal growth & achievement. (Hopefully only) short-term sacrifices necessary for a greater good – but without any guarantees other than knowing how determined I am and how hard I am willing to achieve my goal(s). Creating my own opportunities to express myself and utilize the full scope of my skills. Knowing that I was taking steps to live up to my full potential. Making mistakes (of course!) but living a life without regretting the things I didn’t do. Knowing full well that if it was easy,everyone would do it. |
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I was introduced to Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist – a book that has had a profound impact on my how I view the world. Here’s his introduction which is only a couple pages long and a worthwhile read, in my opinion.
My sun-faded copy has been a co-pilot on my dashboard for over 35,000 miles of my journey so far.
I was afraid of dying with my music still in me — I don’t want to die without having at least attempted living the life I imagined.
“Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
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November 23, 2010
I know it is quite possible to work for others and be completely happy — in fact, I had that job for a time — so I know what it’s like. And if I could find that job, I’d take it — and I would especially take it if I had a family to support.
But knowing what I know now, before I accepted any job I’d want to take into consideration whether it would it ultimately hinder or help me along my path to reach my potential — a stepping stone — and would all my time, energy, and passion be appreciated?
I no longer want to be just a “worker bee” working in my box within rigid parameters that hold me back — particularly working in conditions that some might consider “toxic”. I want more from life than that. And I want to contribute more.
I have yet to feel like I’ve ever completely found my place within my role at any company I’ve worked for — I’d like to find that.
Or maybe the catch is I have to create it…
These are not in any particular order.
Be sure you take a close look. Those people? Yes — they are who you think they are.
Of course, there are a lot more awesome things in the world but I’m a busy guy and I need to keep some things a mystery! I mean, seriously, how much do you need to know!?
This entry stems from a question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately…
What? Do you think I’ve just been driving around and spending so much time alone with a “la-la-la” attitude? No. I’ve been asking a lot of questions and spending a considerable amount of time thinking about the answers.
[And clearly, my blog is all over the place. From amusing & superficial to deeply personal and heart wrenching, to extremely cheesy to serious -- Like me, my blog still doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up... so I just let it be. Eventually it will work itself out.]
And real quick, before any of you who are unfamiliar with me mistakenly think I have low self-esteem, please know that I don’t. :)
I’m a “good person” (or at least I try to be), I know this. But I am wondering why — if I am supposedly in charge of who I am & the decisions I make — why I’m not a better person.
More specifically, why am I not a better person already if I want to be.
Many people express interest in a “better life” — (to save more money, to get fit, to eat healthy, to travel more, to spend more time on personal projects, etc) — but even when certain things they do are clearly not helping them get what they want, they keep doing them over and over & simply hope that, by some stroke of good luck, change will somehow happen. And when it doesn’t, they complain when things are not going as they desire — and yet, their lives are completely congruent with their priorities and the decisions they’ve made as a result of those priorities.
Without even being consciously aware of it, many people have been snared into living their lives controlled by their habits, their possessions, or the opinions of others. And they continue to do so without realizing that all they really have to do to change their lives — or better yet, pursue the life they truly want — is to recognize the ties that bind and make a conscious effort to let go of the habits, possessions, or self-limiting beliefs that hold them back.
