It's all an illusion... A smokescreen... It has taken me 50 years to come to the conclusion that none of this really means much of anything.
This entire thing that we call "life" is nothing but a struggle to get from one day to the next. Some of us are motivated to try to excel at one thing or another, while others seem to be content with a lifetime of mediocrity.
The funny thing is that regardless of how hard you try, there are always hardships and disapointments. Some are able to rise above them, while others tend to let them beat them down and cause them to lose their will to win.
The old saying, "Whatever doesn't kill you can only make you stronger" only applies to some, while others seem to just lay down and become one of the people that we pass on the street and look at with distain.
I'm not at all tying to blow my own horn here; however, I feel that if anyone has a reason to fall by the wayside and become a card carying member of the "Slacker" community, it should be me. For some reason, every time that I get knocked down a notch on the ladder of life, I tend to take it as a personal challenge to make the offending party pay for the knock. For the most part, i have been successfull in those endeavors. It does give you a certain feeling of accomplishment or sattisfaction to look the offending party in the eyes after you have proven that they made a mistake by trying to take advantage of you.
For some reason, I tend to try to be one of the "nice guys" and, I am assuming that it is based on something in my childhood upbringing (Although I can't imagine where it comes from), I always try to live by the old "Golden Rule" and treat others the way that I would like to be treated in a simular position.
Trust me, this isn't always the propper behavior, especially in a professional or work environment. It is human nature and very instinctual for a lot of people to take kindness as a weakness. Most people are looking for an opportunity to better their station in life and usually don't have a problem with taking advantage of someone else in order to make that happen. Who better to take advantage of than the guy who always has a smile on his face, is very well mannered and is always considerate of others?
After having to rebuild my life several times after one personal tragedy after another, I have come to the realization that I am a 50 year old man who has very few real friends, even though I have always been loyal to those who have been loyal to me. I have also realized that I will be working until I die because I have so many mouths to feed and so many people who depend on me.
As I reflect on my life up to this point, I realize that each negative thing that I have had to deal with has made me stronger, or at least more savy and aware of what is going on around me. I'm happy with my life. I can't say that I wouldn't like to have been more succesfull, even though I make a great living and my family lives very comfortably. I haven't always done the things and worked in a field that has made me extremely happy or made me anxious to get out of bed in the morning, but I have evolved in my business life to a point where I am reasonably succesfull and don't have to physically work hard to feed my family.
Sure I would love to be totally financially independent and never have to wory about how I am going to feed my family tomorrow, next week or even next year, but what is the challenge in that?
This entire thing that we call "life" is nothing but a struggle to get from one day to the next. Some of us are motivated to try to excel at one thing or another, while others seem to be content with a lifetime of mediocrity.
The funny thing is that regardless of how hard you try, there are always hardships and disapointments. Some are able to rise above them, while others tend to let them beat them down and cause them to lose their will to win.
The old saying, "Whatever doesn't kill you can only make you stronger" only applies to some, while others seem to just lay down and become one of the people that we pass on the street and look at with distain.
I'm not at all tying to blow my own horn here; however, I feel that if anyone has a reason to fall by the wayside and become a card carying member of the "Slacker" community, it should be me. For some reason, every time that I get knocked down a notch on the ladder of life, I tend to take it as a personal challenge to make the offending party pay for the knock. For the most part, i have been successfull in those endeavors. It does give you a certain feeling of accomplishment or sattisfaction to look the offending party in the eyes after you have proven that they made a mistake by trying to take advantage of you.
For some reason, I tend to try to be one of the "nice guys" and, I am assuming that it is based on something in my childhood upbringing (Although I can't imagine where it comes from), I always try to live by the old "Golden Rule" and treat others the way that I would like to be treated in a simular position.
Trust me, this isn't always the propper behavior, especially in a professional or work environment. It is human nature and very instinctual for a lot of people to take kindness as a weakness. Most people are looking for an opportunity to better their station in life and usually don't have a problem with taking advantage of someone else in order to make that happen. Who better to take advantage of than the guy who always has a smile on his face, is very well mannered and is always considerate of others?
After having to rebuild my life several times after one personal tragedy after another, I have come to the realization that I am a 50 year old man who has very few real friends, even though I have always been loyal to those who have been loyal to me. I have also realized that I will be working until I die because I have so many mouths to feed and so many people who depend on me.
As I reflect on my life up to this point, I realize that each negative thing that I have had to deal with has made me stronger, or at least more savy and aware of what is going on around me. I'm happy with my life. I can't say that I wouldn't like to have been more succesfull, even though I make a great living and my family lives very comfortably. I haven't always done the things and worked in a field that has made me extremely happy or made me anxious to get out of bed in the morning, but I have evolved in my business life to a point where I am reasonably succesfull and don't have to physically work hard to feed my family.
Sure I would love to be totally financially independent and never have to wory about how I am going to feed my family tomorrow, next week or even next year, but what is the challenge in that?
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