It's easy to have a bad day. So many things can go wrong in one 24-hour period. If external inputs alone are allowed to dictate one's final disposition, then we must be prepared for a great many bad days in this life.
What's impressed me recently is how easy it is to have a good day.
It's usually simple things -- An hour playing the guitar, or a chapter or two with a good book under a lamp on a comfortable couch, a run through the neighborhood despite 10-degree weather.
Here's another example: I'm trying to get into shape. My goal is to achieve the physical condition that I enjoyed in High School, and I can't be satisfied with my body until that happens. So it follows that I must be resigned to perpetual self-loathing until I reach that goal, right? But it turns out that on any day that I put in a good workout, the annoyance I felt towards my (fat) self is gone. The investment in the NOW seems to mask or offset any disappointment in the past, or fear of the future.
I heard today that CHARACTER is all we take with us from this life, and it's all we came here to get. You can gauge whether you are making wise investments of your time or wasting it by seeing how your activities develop your character.
So I asked myself what kind of character I want. And here is what I came up with:
I want to do things because I want to, not because they are easy or will make me a lot of money.
I want to rise early everyday, and sleep when necessary for a healthy lifestyle, not simply to end the day or delay the morning.
I want to be always moving - always learning, growing, stretching, discovering. Falling often, but picking myself up again. I never want to passively avoid a particular path. The only acceptable reason for such avoidance is because I've found a better route and I'm taking it.
I want to be positive. I've found that in many situations where opportunity is hedged by compelling reasons to avoid the associated risk, there are also compelling reasons to accept that risk and challenge it head-on. When I see only the risk, I stay where I am, earning myself nothing but regret for my troubles. But when I start with the a priori assumption that life is grand, including each moment of every day, then exciting possibilities become evident in even the most mundane choices. When I see the world like that, there is nothing to fear. When I act on that perspective, sometimes I conquer and sometimes I don't, but I'm always better for the effort.
I want to be thorough. In thoroughness is satisfaction. There are so many amazing things to do with every day, and certainly with an entire lifetime. I won't have time to do them all, but what I do, I'll do with all my heart.
What's impressed me recently is how easy it is to have a good day.
It's usually simple things -- An hour playing the guitar, or a chapter or two with a good book under a lamp on a comfortable couch, a run through the neighborhood despite 10-degree weather.
Here's another example: I'm trying to get into shape. My goal is to achieve the physical condition that I enjoyed in High School, and I can't be satisfied with my body until that happens. So it follows that I must be resigned to perpetual self-loathing until I reach that goal, right? But it turns out that on any day that I put in a good workout, the annoyance I felt towards my (fat) self is gone. The investment in the NOW seems to mask or offset any disappointment in the past, or fear of the future.
I heard today that CHARACTER is all we take with us from this life, and it's all we came here to get. You can gauge whether you are making wise investments of your time or wasting it by seeing how your activities develop your character.
So I asked myself what kind of character I want. And here is what I came up with:
I want to do things because I want to, not because they are easy or will make me a lot of money.
I want to rise early everyday, and sleep when necessary for a healthy lifestyle, not simply to end the day or delay the morning.
I want to be always moving - always learning, growing, stretching, discovering. Falling often, but picking myself up again. I never want to passively avoid a particular path. The only acceptable reason for such avoidance is because I've found a better route and I'm taking it.
I want to be thorough. In thoroughness is satisfaction. There are so many amazing things to do with every day, and certainly with an entire lifetime. I won't have time to do them all, but what I do, I'll do with all my heart.
