This just came by on the radio and I felt compelled to share it with you:

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Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be
it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by
scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
than my own meandering experience… I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind;
you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.
But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and
recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before
you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you
imagine.

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as
effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind;
the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing everyday that scares you. Sing!
Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…
the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.
Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults;
if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…
the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives,
some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.
Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.
Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe you won’t,
maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…
Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either –
your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it,
it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own..
Dance… even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.
Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.
Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get,
the more you need the people you
knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard;
Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander,
you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable,
politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders. Don’t expect anyone else to support you.
Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse;
but you never know when either one might run out.
Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you’re 40,
it will look 85. Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it.
Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal,
wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

…But trust me on the sunscreen…
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Taken from the following song: Baz Luhrmann – Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

I’ve heard it quite some times in the past but never truely paid attention to the message it held. I’m glad I did today!

Really, why is it?
If you’re anything like me you’ve probably seen numerous blogs and tons of articles on the subject of realising, finding, discovering, or even re-discovering your passion. Everyone is looking for happiness in their life; doing what they love surrounded by the people who’s company you enjoy. And in order to achieve this goal you’ve at least to know what it is that you love to do, right? No wonder that so many people have written (and are still writing, like me) about this subject; Everyone is trying to figure this out, making your audience huge!
How come then, that with so many people writing about the subject most of us are still looking for it? There are tons of great tips out there, but somehow we’re still looking for our passion. Every once in a while I tell myself: “It can’t possibly be this hard!?! I know what I like to do right? I should know what I enjoy doing or what energizes me?!” It turns out that, for me, it doesn’t seem to be that simple after all. Great, right? pff..

Mental meltdown

Back when I was a fulltime student I wasn’t paying too much attention to this whole “passion-thing”. I just had some classes to attend, some assignments to hand in and some house-work to manage but apart from that I was completely free to do what I wanted. Whenever I felt like going and have a beer with mates downtown, I would. When I felt like swimming, renting a canoe, go running, play world of warcraft (yes, I confess ) I would.
But now that university life is over and you have a “career” to consider, it suddenly seems to be a lot more complicated. The time of “just doing it” seems to be over and every decision tends to move towards internal conflict; “I should do it because..”, “No, wait! What if this happens?”, “How will that effect the future?”, “Does it pay enough”, “Am I not sacrificing too much?” – …. Mental meltdown….
Suddenly everything is supposed to be an exact science with fixed variables like payout, growth potential, distance from home, working hours and joy doing it.

Variable?

Did you see it happen? Joy is now nothing more then a variable in the equation of picking a carreer. A variable means exactly that, it’s variable; you are allowing it to vary in relation to the other factors involved. Why on earth is joy suddenly a variable instead of a constant? Could it be that people are often dissatisfied with their work (and possibly life in general) because they let joy become a variable instead of a constant factor in their life? I think that may very well be the case!
In fact, isn’t that what doing something that you’re passionate about feels like? When you are working on your passion, joy is a constant not a variable. Pursuing your passion results in constant joy, con-stant.

Then what it is?

So is swimming my passion? No, I just enjoy it once in a while. Was world of warcraft my passion (I don’t play anymore), no it wasn’t because I didn’t constant joy from it. Sometimes it even drained me and caused frustration; definitely not a passion. I should really ask myself what it is I never get bored with, what has kept me fascinated for years without boring me. Not just something I like occasionally, but something I love constantly.
My search continues,… but now with better defined terms.

I’ll keep posting on the progress in this area. But I’d also like to know what’s your passion, how you realised it what it was and if you have any tips for others. Please leave a comment and help others out by sharing your experiences!

Until next time, keep moving forward!

Yesterday I watched the movie “The pursuit of happyness” featuring Will Smith on the television. It’s not every day there’s something decent on tv these days and I really wanted to see the movie after a scene that was included in “Will’s Wisdom“. (which is a great youtube movie about Will Smiths views on life and spiritual development. I’d say it’s a must-see.) I won’t go into the movie in detail but the reason I’m mentioning it is because it reminded me of a saying I had heard (or actually read) years before.

When I was still in highschool I bought an agenda for keep track of my classes and homework assignments. Since I was really into extreme sports at the time, I bought myself a “No Fear” agenda featuring all sorts of extreme sports athletes. It contained a lot of photo’s with inspiring quotes like: “Face your fears, Live your dreams“.
But the one I want to hand to you today is another that came back to me after watching the movie last night.

“It’s not how good you are,… It’s how bad you want it.”

In retrospect, at the time I was using the agenda for school work, I didn’t really get it. After all, when you’re in school it’s all about how good and-/or popular you are. Wanting an A+ on a math test didn’t get you an A+. Studying hard and making sure you were “good at it” got you what you wanted. There must have been at least 20-30 quotes in that agenda but the only two I remember vividly are the two I just shared with you. Pretty strange to remember something that didn’t make sense at the time.

While watching the movie yesterday I saw Will Smith playing Chris Gartner, a salesman that was losing everything; His money, his house, his wife and even coming close to losing his son. Even though all odds were against him he kept going; doing whatever it took to keep himself and his son afloat while doing a non-paying traineeship at a investment-firm during the day. He was so committed and persistent going about his internship that he eventually got a job as a stockbroker. Even though all his competitors had far more time and money he still managed to outshine them. It wasn’t all about how good he was, it was how bad he wanted to be a stockbroker that got him the internship and the job in the end.

For those of you that are working with the law of attraction, I don’t even have to explain how “wanting something bad” works. But I’d just thought I’d mention this side of the quote.

It’s all about focus. It’s all about defining a goal for yourself and wanting it so bad that it doesn’t even matter what gets in your way, you’ll deal with it.
Or, from another perspective: Wanting something very badly and are willing to take the opportunities that are presented to you, even though they may seem far less then ideal.

However, realising, knowing and defining what you really want is something entirely different. But that I’ll save that for another post. For now just remember, as Chris Gartner said in the movie:

“Don’t ever let somebody tell you you can’t do something… not even me. If you’ve got a dream, you’ve gotta protect it. If people can’t do something themselves they want to tell you you can’t do it. If you want something,… go get it… period!”

Until your next P.G. Snack craving