Another IPS (Inner Peace Symptom): an inclination to try and see whether you can pull something off. [Trying it for yourself can lead to some amazing discoveries.] I am watching a young friend who’s stuck in a major cycle of suck. He won’t try anything new. I don’t understand why it’s so hard for him, but there it is. He sits around moaning about how his life is not working, but he won’t try doing anything different.
Journalist and radio producer Dave Isay firmly believes that every person has a story to tell, one that the world needs to hear, and he’s been working on figuring out how to gather these stories together so everyone can share in them. It all comes down to taking the time to listen. THE LOST STORIES It started, the guy says, when he was a young lad. He was a loner and a nerdy sort who preferred talking to older people….
The wise guys say Life is a balance. Physically that is a truth. You breathe in and you breathe out. Too much breathing in and you hyperventilate; too little and you turn blue. Eat too much and you gain weight; eat too little and you waste away. Balance is fascinating.
I had a friend who won my admiration because his constant go-to request was always this: “Can I ask a stupid question?“ Then he’d ask a question that was A-B-C simple about something I thought I knew. I’d answer the question (out of my own great wisdom, of course). It made me feel so good to be able to be…uh-hem…The Expert. My friend Les listened carefully. He’d think on what I said. Then he’d ask more “stupid” questions, helping me…
Starting is a series of events. You decide to walk to Cleveland and you aim to do it on your own two feet – no bike, no bus, no train, no plane or helicopter…not even a hot-air balloon. You’re going to walk to Cleveland. So you take a first step in the right direction. That’s starting. At the end of the day, however far you’ve gotten, you might stop at a hotel and rest. And what happens the next morning? …
It’s been a quiet sort of shift. More and more people are moving away from the “work-and-spend” mentality that characterized the latter half of the last century. They are looking for more meaning to add to their lives, they say. Gregg Easterbrook, in his book, THE PROGRESS PARADOX: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse, has pointed out, “A transition from material want to meaning want is in progress on an historically unprecedented scale—involving hundreds of millions of people…
Gratitude is a choice, but why would you choose it? In recent years there have been systematic scientific studies of gratitude and its positive effects. These studies show that grateful people are happier, more open and sociable, less depressed and neurotic and express higher levels of satisfaction with their lives and relationships.
Another IPS (Inner Peace Symptom): an understanding that action and failure are two sides of the same coin. [The trick is to use failure as a signal for a course correction rather than as a stop sign….]
There used to be a thing called “spare time” which was greatly anticipated and enjoyed by those who had it. It was the time we had available to do other things than work, developing our hustle-muscle, or striving for S.M.A.R.T. goals. Spare time nourished us and kept us engaged and enjoying life. Spare time helped us to thrive in the middle of Life’s inevitable obstacles and challenges. We were able to find meaning and mana in our ordinary lives because…
