This quote comes from the group Men To Boys, a local acapella group that sang at an event I was covering.
When food starts replacing sex, men can’t even get into their own pants!
Hahaha, I thought that was awesome!
Quote of the day
RIP Randy Pausch – “The Last Lecture”
YouTube – Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.
If you want a shorter “trailer” version of this professor’s lecture, you can watch it here. I recommend watching all of it. It is worth it.
How do you know you’re at the finish line …
The main reason, people stop what they are doing before the job is completed is because, they do not have a picture of the finished product. In other words, to finish something, you must already know what it looks like in your mind.
~ Pastor Clyde C. Williams
I thought this was a pretty good quote. How do you know when something is finished when you don’t know what finish is?
Quite frequently, when I talk about kung fu to people, I always tell them “How do you know you are good when you do not know what good is?” Some people think they are awesome, but it is only because they have not seen the bigger fish.
When coaching dragonboat, I always point out other teams to my team. I have always found pictures of good teams to show them to my team in the hopes they can be inspired and can find higher levels to push themselves to.
In terms of life and in general, having goals is important. How do you know where to head, if you do not have goals. People might stop trying, even just short of achieving their goal, just because they do not have a clearly defined goal and not know where that finish line is.
I’m not exactly religious, but I happened to come by that quote while searching online.
‘Wall Street got drunk’ says Bush
“It got drunk and now it’s got a hangover,” Mr Bush said at a private political fundraiser in Houston, Texas.
[...]“The question is, how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments?” the president asks in the clip.
Good old President Bush. What’s the world without some insanely humourous quote from one of the leading nations of this planet.
Made me think of the scene from Harold and Kumar when the pair dropped into the president’s ranch.
Quote: Searching deeper
“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise.”
~ Robert Fritz
Sometimes you have to make things happen, create the opportunity and not wait for one to appear.
What is dan’ism?
Jade asked me what dan’ism was … well, these quotes and precepts are what I try to live by now.
Precepts
No fear. No doubt. No regrets
Don’t be afraid to try new things. Have confidence in the decision you made to try it. Don’t make decisions that you can’t live with.
Desire. Passion. Focus.
If you desire something, put your passion and focus into it! I actually made this up when I was dragonboating. I put my passion into paddling and the desire to cross that finish line made me put my full focus into my paddling in the summers.
When I decided I wanted to switch from computer programming, even though I was really good at it, to being a news photographer, a career I knew little about, I just put my desire, passion and focus together and went with it.
Backup plan? Well, while I had programming as a backup, I tried not to think about it. Prepare the backup, then forget about it. You won’t need it. Constantly thinking about your backup is having self-doubt.
Quotes
“Twenty years from now
you will be more disappointed
by the things you didn’t do
than by the ones you did do.So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbour.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.”
~ Mark Twain
Do not be afraid to explore! Do not be afraid to play outside of your sandbox! I do have regrets unfortunately. The regrets are the things that I did not do. From now on, the no-regrets part of what I try to live by, is in trying to experience as much of life as I can.
“Not knowing history is to not have a compass on events. It’s like being in the middle of an ongoing conversation and not know what anybody has been saying.”
~ Caroline Myss
We should learn from past mistakes, to know where we are going. Our past helps guide us through to our future. If you have no past, you have no future. Afterall, your life is the sum of your experiences! Your actions are guided by those experiences.
“I’m a lover, not a fighter, but I’ll fight for what I love.”
~ Anon
Make love, not war! But defend what your love with everything you’ve got! Of course, pick the place of battle and weapon of choice carefully. Whether it be words, fists, or whatever else you’ve got!
“You grow old the moment you stop learning. The secret to eternal youth is to keep on learning.”
~ Anon
Keep learning! Old people always “don’t do this” or “don’t like to try that”. The world they live in is preconceived in their minds and the borders they set up to keep that world intact, is what keeps them old. Again, look at Mark Twain’s quote. It applies even to your dying day!
“Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart”
~ Chinese Proverb
If you want to do something, just do it. Feel it. Go with it! Why do something and then hold back on doing it? That’s fear. That’s doubt. That’s lacking confidence.
“Only exceptionally rational men can afford to be absurd.”
~ Allan Goldfein
“Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
~ Albert Einstein
“The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.”
~ Bruce Feirstein
Don’t be afraid to use your imagination. To boldy go where no man has gone before. Afterall, before man first went into space, we all dreamt of what it would be like.
“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise.”
~ Robert Fritz
Sometimes you have to make things happen, create the opportunity and not wait for one to appear.
“A journey of a thousand miles, begins with a single step.”
~ Chinese proverb
Don’t be afraid to get things done. Little by little, a mountain can be moved. (I’m sure there’s a quote for that latter part.)
“Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
~ Dylan Thomas
Whatever you do, don’t give up!
So that’s what I try to live by. And that list grows every day. Because I keep learning.
“And every hour of every day I’m learning more
The more I learn, the less I know about before
The less I know, the more I want to look around
Digging deep for clues on higher ground…”
~ UB40 – Higher Ground
Human Doing vs Being
Be A Human Being – Not A Human DoingHave you ever admired a successful person? What was it that you admired? Was it their fame? Their lifestyle? Their accomplishments?
Society teaches us that to be successful, we must achieve-we, must “do” something to earn it. We are taught to work hard to be “successful”. And to show our success we buy things – material “things” that prove our success “status”. When we focus on earning success we become “Human Doings”.
Human Doings overload themselves with long lists of goals, objectives and “to do” lists. They become emotionally drained as they spread themselves too thin. Worse yet, they are unavailable to respond to the emotional needs of those around them because they have so little left to give. Just as a hand becomes calloused to toughen sensitive skin, so does a human doing become insensitive to “feeling” the emotions of those around him.
“Human Beings” consciously chooses to slow down, prioritize and maintain balance. They understand the risk of getting too over responsible to their success at the cost of becoming insensitive, distant and emotionally unavailable. They make a decision to stay in touch with those they love by setting up boundaries that prevent them from becoming a slave to their goals.
Strive2Thrive
Thanks to Kevin Charland for this link. I love the quote here and it makes a lot of sense. I guess in this society, there is much pressure on defining people by what they achieve, and not really what they are. It’s a philosophical debate that can go both ways, but I like how they define Being vs Doing here.