How Far Should You Roam in the Pursuit of Success?

Good Morning!

It has been an eventful week...

I have realized that these types of weeks are made and just do not happen by chance...

We oftentimes find ourselves waiting for the BIG BREAK...Most people die waiting for the chance...few get have the break dropped in their lap...and most of the lucky breaks were made...through:

DREAMING
PLANNING
EFFORT

To that end...

Dare to Dream!  (Rather cliche...but this is where it all starts)
Create a plan and assess the cost...and make your success interim goals...not final ones...
Work to make progress towards (on a daily basis) towards those interim goals...

So...this begs the question...

How far should you roam in your pursuit of success...?

Although this is not the theme of this series of thoughts...I want to point out that we use the terms "success" and "happiness interchangeably...

They are not the same...a person can be successful and unhappy...and vice versa...

Begin your journey by separating the two terms...until they become one in the same...this takes time...

The separation of the two meanings is subtly what this thought is about...
My father used to tell me...

You can get a productive oil well (in Wisconsin) simply by drilling towards Texas...

I would laugh at the comment...but never really the grasp of the depth of it (pun not intended...on second thought...that was pretty good!)  I thought about that bit of fatherly advice...and realized how astute it is!

The cost of success must be critically considered when you set out on that journey...

Success may be (and more often is) had from your current place in life...

Success is hard and arduous work...it is seldom dropped into one's lap...

A majority of success seekers will migrate to where success is more (in their opinion) easily obtained...it may be the easier route to get it where you are at!

My guess is that you can find more wisdom in this statement...I will think through this in the coming days...

Let's dig into this thought a bit deeper...into success...

There is an old Chinese proverb...of a peasant farmer, who owned a meager farm...he was very disappointed with his lot in life...so he went to a fortune teller...

The fortune teller, whose accuracy was renowned...told the farmer that he saw that the farmer had 2 paths before him...if he took one path he would find fortune beyond his wildest imagination...and if he chose the other path he would remain in poverty...he was at the crossroad and it was time for him to choose wisely...

The farmer returned to his farm and his village and and thought about what the seer had told him.  It soon became clear to him what he needed to do...

...he then searched the village and found someone willing to buy his farm.

The farmer packed what few belongings he had on his back...and set out to travel the world...looking for his fortune...

He spent the rest of his life...traveling for country to country...searching for the treasure that he had been promised...while he searched his travels and sacrifices made him miss the security and comfort of his agrarian life style.

One day he realized that his life was drawing to a close...and he longed returned to his village...to see his friends and his former farm one last time...

As he approached the village and his farm, he could see that things had drastically changed...

It was no longer a group of small decrepit huts...but sprawling palaces...

As he entered the gate to the land of his former farm...he was met by the man who had purchased it from him...

The weary traveler asked, "What has happened to make this place a paradise?"

The owner explained that the day after he bought the farm, he took a walk to survey his new property.  As he walked, a glint caught his eye.  He reached down to find a diamond.  As time passed, the farm provided more precious of the precious jewels than one could imagine...so many in fact that he shared his riches with everyone in the village.

I could cite the morale of the story...I do not need to...

Where are my thoughts going?

At any point in your life...you stand at a cross road...

It does not take a renowned fortune teller to point this out!

You have choices that will take you on a path of success...or one to poverty and despair...

You first have to know...DEFINE...what your success is...

That will tell you what path you need to take...

Then you have to walk it...

Many of those paths are close to home...

Home is often not a physical location...but think of the old cliche...

Home is where the heart is...

Stay close to your heart...that which you love...therein is where you'll drill for and find success that flows like a gusher!

I could go on with this thought for pages...but for now...

ENOUGH SAID!

I want to close with some information that I came across...purely by chance.  I think that this announcement (the result of extensive research) is one of the "darkest" in American history.  It disclosed that for the first time in American history, our children's' life expectancy is less than our own.  Moreover, they are expected to suffer more maladies in middle age and late life than we are...and the only redeeming part of the announcement was that they'll die sooner...and that from my perspective is not a good one!

Is it from environment? or some uncontrollable asteroid collision?

NO!

It is from diet and exercise...

Our children on an average are more obese...but that does not take the skinny ones out of the equation!

Even the skinny ones (and this is the scary part) have a lower life expectancy...in fact theirs is lower...than the fat kids!

It is from the overuse of sugar...leading to other major issues such as alcoholism...and early onset diabetes...

It is from the lack of regular and strenuous exercise leading to heart and skeletal issues...(sedentary video gamers?)

It is from no intake of leafy green vegetables such as lettuce...leading to major digestive issues...

The list was extensive...I just wanted to give you a few examples...

The reduced life expectancy projections are not just in a few years...but in decades...

Some of the related articles tried to place blame on some individual...or organization...

No one can specifically take the blame for this situation...

I believe that everyone must take the blame...even the kids themselves...

In my March 27th blog...I wrote about our obligation to the next generation...it is to make them better and leave the world a better place on which they can live and thrive...we are now officially remiss on both counts...

They are not being left in a better position...and it is because of our own short-sighted and selfish thinking...

It is not too late to turn that ship around...

If we don't...there is only one result...and it is not a good one...

Enough Said!
Have a great weekend!

Make a difference in a child's life (expectancy) by getting them out of the house...doing something active...and drinking water (rather than some sugar laden energy drink)...

Pura Vida!  (translation: For Life!)

Literally!