In case you didn't know I'm about halfway through my summer as a Camp Counselor at te world famous Durango Mountain Camp in Colorado. Thus, I don't have much time to post up here. However, if you wanna follow my happenings, hit up these to blogs:
roadtriptodurngo.blogspot.com
and
durangomountaincamp.blogspot.com
19 July 2009
09 June 2009
Doing
Some people have accused me of burning the candle at both ends.
My father says I try to light it in the middle as well.
Personally, I've just chunked the whole thing into fire. This is because of how busy I am. It is this activity that has prevented me from posting in so long. Between work, school, church, family, and friends, I am left with precious little time. I'm not saying I am the most effective custodian of time, but I am not one to waste much of it.
Life won't wait. That's not an original quote, but its one I believe in. For that reason I try live by one of my personal credos: "Eliminate every 'what if' possible from life."
Its risky business. Pause for a moment and consider the 'what if's you carry around with you in memory. Many of them most likely involve a moment of hesitation, or perhaps a situation requiring an inner strength or courage. Many of these situation cause one to place one's self on the line.
It all started with a woman. I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say that my love life has been filled with many shut downs, let downs, put downs, and downs in general. As it were, I got to the point of not wanting to invest any more of myself in what I felt was losing the battle. However, a wonderful woman entered my life and I did nothing. Because I did nothing nothing happened, and now, in her life, I am nothing. I'm not saying we would have had something, but we could have. Now I'm left with nothing more than a 'what if'.
The solution: do. Notice I said do, not try. Turns out Yoda was right, partialy. In the present tense there is no trying, there is only doing. If we do and succeed, it can be said we did. If we do, and fail, it can be said we tried. The difference between do and try is failure. To try in the present implies future failure, something of which no certainty can be had with goals consived with even the slightest sense of reality. Thus, I never try anything, only do.
Now the novel truth.
We risk nothing in doing things with great potential for failure. In doing something and succeeding we have gained what ever it is we set out for. If in doing something we fail we still have accomplished something. In some cases we have learned a new limit, in others we have simply learned one way this goal cannot be accomplished. While this may only be a slight reward or progression, it is still movement in the right direction. Only if we do not will we have accomplished nothing save the creation of a 'what if' and in such the seed of regret.
Do.
Is there really any other option? For me there is not. For you? That is for you to decide. In closing I deliver one of my favorite quotes from a great man.
"In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."
Theodore Roosevelt
My father says I try to light it in the middle as well.
Personally, I've just chunked the whole thing into fire. This is because of how busy I am. It is this activity that has prevented me from posting in so long. Between work, school, church, family, and friends, I am left with precious little time. I'm not saying I am the most effective custodian of time, but I am not one to waste much of it.
Life won't wait. That's not an original quote, but its one I believe in. For that reason I try live by one of my personal credos: "Eliminate every 'what if' possible from life."
Its risky business. Pause for a moment and consider the 'what if's you carry around with you in memory. Many of them most likely involve a moment of hesitation, or perhaps a situation requiring an inner strength or courage. Many of these situation cause one to place one's self on the line.
It all started with a woman. I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say that my love life has been filled with many shut downs, let downs, put downs, and downs in general. As it were, I got to the point of not wanting to invest any more of myself in what I felt was losing the battle. However, a wonderful woman entered my life and I did nothing. Because I did nothing nothing happened, and now, in her life, I am nothing. I'm not saying we would have had something, but we could have. Now I'm left with nothing more than a 'what if'.
The solution: do. Notice I said do, not try. Turns out Yoda was right, partialy. In the present tense there is no trying, there is only doing. If we do and succeed, it can be said we did. If we do, and fail, it can be said we tried. The difference between do and try is failure. To try in the present implies future failure, something of which no certainty can be had with goals consived with even the slightest sense of reality. Thus, I never try anything, only do.
Now the novel truth.
We risk nothing in doing things with great potential for failure. In doing something and succeeding we have gained what ever it is we set out for. If in doing something we fail we still have accomplished something. In some cases we have learned a new limit, in others we have simply learned one way this goal cannot be accomplished. While this may only be a slight reward or progression, it is still movement in the right direction. Only if we do not will we have accomplished nothing save the creation of a 'what if' and in such the seed of regret.
Do.
Is there really any other option? For me there is not. For you? That is for you to decide. In closing I deliver one of my favorite quotes from a great man.
"In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."
Theodore Roosevelt
02 April 2009
05 January 2009
Higher Resolution
It is five days into the new year and inevitably the question has already been asked: 'What's your New Year's resolution?'
I don't have one. I don't believe in them. I think its a silly concept.
I love the idea of change and progress. Especially when it is self motivated and self regulated. After all, what is damnation of than the halt of progress? I support change in myself and others.
The problem I have with New Year's resolutions are these: 1) Lack of resolve 2) Timing.
New Year's Resolutions lack resolve. Fundamentally, the reason we make New Year's Resolutions is not because we have an intense desire, or resolve, if you will, for change. Rather we make them because it it New Years. If this change you resolve to make was really that high on your priorities list you wouldn't wait until December 31st to effect it.
Timing, they say, is everything. Time is the one thing we all have the same amount of, and what we do in life depends most on how we budget it. It is the great struggle of quality versus quantity. How many things can I attempt to accomplish in a day and still give them the attention, effort, and energy they require to be done correctly? While there is a certain undeniable romance to beginning some personal adventure of change on the first day of a new year, this can be diluted with attempting too much at one time. You can only eat an elephant one bite at a time, but with the to-do lists we can create for our New Year's Resolutions, it can be like attempting to swallow the monster whole.
My advice? Before I deliver it, remember free advice is usually worth what you paid for it. If you want to change something about yourself do it. Do it for yourself, when you want to. Ultimately, this will create more resolve than to try to change for any other reason at any other time. Also, pace yourself. To borrow again from the great book of cliches, Rome was not built in a day. Take changes at a pace that you can give them the effort the require.
Above all, have a wonderful year.
I don't have one. I don't believe in them. I think its a silly concept.
I love the idea of change and progress. Especially when it is self motivated and self regulated. After all, what is damnation of than the halt of progress? I support change in myself and others.
The problem I have with New Year's resolutions are these: 1) Lack of resolve 2) Timing.
New Year's Resolutions lack resolve. Fundamentally, the reason we make New Year's Resolutions is not because we have an intense desire, or resolve, if you will, for change. Rather we make them because it it New Years. If this change you resolve to make was really that high on your priorities list you wouldn't wait until December 31st to effect it.
Timing, they say, is everything. Time is the one thing we all have the same amount of, and what we do in life depends most on how we budget it. It is the great struggle of quality versus quantity. How many things can I attempt to accomplish in a day and still give them the attention, effort, and energy they require to be done correctly? While there is a certain undeniable romance to beginning some personal adventure of change on the first day of a new year, this can be diluted with attempting too much at one time. You can only eat an elephant one bite at a time, but with the to-do lists we can create for our New Year's Resolutions, it can be like attempting to swallow the monster whole.
My advice? Before I deliver it, remember free advice is usually worth what you paid for it. If you want to change something about yourself do it. Do it for yourself, when you want to. Ultimately, this will create more resolve than to try to change for any other reason at any other time. Also, pace yourself. To borrow again from the great book of cliches, Rome was not built in a day. Take changes at a pace that you can give them the effort the require.
Above all, have a wonderful year.
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