My good friend Justin sent me a link to a TED talk about an inspirational story of a woman quitting her day job and rowing across the Atlantic. In her conclusion she has a really memorable quote that really struck a chord with me:
“It’s about taking responsibility. For so much of my life, I wanted something else to make me happy. I thought if I had the right house, or the right car, or the right man in my life then I could be happy. But when I wrote that obituary exercise I grew up a little bit in that moment and realized that I needed to create my own future. I couldn’t just wait for happiness to come and find me.” Roz Savage
I get the feeling that a lot of people are waiting for something. I hate waiting. I hate waiting for a table, I hate waiting for the bus and I hate waiting for my life to change. I much prefer to make things happen. It sometimes requires a lot more work but like I said, I really hate waiting.
Funnily enough, another TED (2010) speaker, Daniel Kahneman, talks about how having $$$ and spending time with people you love are important factors in human happiness. Although he mentions that in passing, the talk is a fascinating dissection of memory and the duality of the experiencing and remembering self, and made me reevaluate the reasoning behind the decisions in my life. Briefly. You can check it on youtube.
Happiness is an elusive thing. I don’t think anybody’s got it quite figured out completely but I think a lot of people have bits and pieces of it. Just got to figure out which bits and pieces work best for me.
Reflection is good except when you put two mirrors facing each other, then it’s just awesome.