Life lessons that you forget to remember...

easier said then done......

Regarding this lesson, I believe you need to be a certain kind of personality (which very few are) to follow this particular course. Rather, I have learned that if you want to do things with the sincerity and enthusiasm most likely to make them work for you, and be able to do them long-term, you have to be yourself and do things you enjoy. There will be times when you need some discipline and willpower not to go lie on the beach or whatever, but that is doable. For most, keeping themselves constantly on a leash usually does not have a good outcome.

I think that the hardest lesson of all is not to take life's lessons lightly. Most of us, whether in our private lives or in business, know what we should be doing. We often claim to ourselves and to others that we are doing those things. Yet in reality, we treat most motivational concepts as little more than wallpaper: they play little real part in our lives at all.

That doesn't only apply to individuals, but to companies too. In Tom Peter's book "In Search of Excellence", he differentiates between the excellent companies and the rest largely by highlighting those which live and breathe their slogans, and those which regard slogans as nothing more than a marketing tool.

This is why I write creatively. To help myself remember the lessons of the past lest I repeat them.

Left Field is a cool place that is HIGHLY underrated.

2c

Wow, I hadn't even realized anyone responded to this thread, I saw it drop like a rock and got too busy to check up on it.

This is a great post here man.

I think I may have come across wrongly in the past, you're a smart cookie and not a typical GFYer, and normally I would have notated the difference but I have been only half-paying attention recently to GFY. Sometimes text is not the right medium to communicate certain things (as we all know). Sometimes it conveys things that aren't there, or does the opposite. I'm sorry for that.

In any case - I wanted to point something out in your post here, you say:

"Rather, I have learned that if you want to do things with the sincerity and enthusiasm most likely to make them work for you, and be able to do them long-term, you have to be yourself and do things you enjoy."

This doesn't solve the problem of human indulgence. I think a lot of people will say 'being themselves and doing things they enjoy" are in and of themselves: life's little indulgences that are taken overboard. And without the discipline and willpower referred to above can become a problem.

So it kind of becomes a catch22...

We stiull need to touch base :/

Glad someone else thinks so.

Mmmm

I think the "taking lifes pleasures overboard" thing is almost exclusively an "american" thing ... with a couple other "1st world countries" thrown in wanting to have "the american dream."

The american dream today seems to be to gather as much crap as you can, have kids, pass off your consumerism to them, die, and leave them with all yer debt.

We are quickly becoming a world of bad credit - people dont think about having to pay anything back ... they just "want" - new cars, new clothes, new gadgets, and services ... oh the services .... lawn care, hair care, nail care, pet care, car care .... etc etc etc ....

Makes me wonder whatever happened to DIY ...

twinkley

Today's society is based on "be like the Jones's"... it's what drives advertising, marketing... everything.

It's what makes girls depressed when they can never look as good as the cover models they see every day.

It's what makes guys think that they have to drive the newest edition luxury or sports car just to be somebody.

It's stupid, and childish... but it's the way society is today. The reason depression rates are up today isn't because life is harder, it's because there's so many forms of "perfection" thrown in your face that you can never live up to, and that's what you have to compare your life to.

The trick is to live your life on your own terms... whether rich or poor, big or small... don't compare yourself to anyone else, or anything that some faceless corporation tells you to be like... just be happy with who you are, what you have and what you've accomplished. And in the end, you'll be a better person for it.