"Twenty years from now
you will be more disappointed
by the things that you didn't do
than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover."
-- Mark Twain
What a great quote to ponder. When I was younger, I would often look back on my life and feel disappointed that I didn't make decisions, develop disciplines that would have had me in a better position in the place I was then. Yet today, as I look back twenty years to age 45, or 35, or 25, or 15, I no longer think of disappointments, bad decisions, things that could have been, etc.
The answer for me lies in a quote by J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan and much more. He said, "The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does." I see a world apart in those two connected phrases.
Probably, many people are seeking that secret to the happiness of doing what they like or love rather than what they are currently doing. I even spent a good deal of time in that space myself over the years. Another way to say that is that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. It's always somewhere else and not where we are now.
What I learned that changed all of that was the second part of the two-part phrase, by learning to, or rather allowing myself to, like what I was doing. In liking what I was doing, I could see the past differently. Things that I've done became stepping stones across streams, pathways through the forest, shade trees in the heat of the summer.
Rather than waiting for something to come along that I liked, I began liking where I was and what I was doing. Instead of wishing and hoping, I was doing and allowing. I love how one of my favorite mentors, Jim Rohn said it: "If you don't like what you're doing, change it. You're not a tree!"
Enjoy Yourself And Enjoy Every Step On Your Journey.
Spread Some Joy Today--because joy is your natural state. Just uncover it.
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