| I have some issues with this exhortation. You need to survive today and plan for tomorrow. Otherwise you'll never reach your goal. This means that you MUST work. You MUST keep learning. You MUST gain allies. And you MUST keep your eyes on the prize. It's not enough to simply chase your dream; you need a plan and many strategies. Most of your strategies will fail, and some will succeed. What you're really doing in your failures and successes and constant practice is grooming and changing yourself such that you eventually become the person who can succeed in the endeavor you have chosen. If you stop learning, you're deciding that there's nothing left to learn. Besides the sheer arrogance of such a stance, it leaves you inflexible, unable to change yourself any more. It means that what you're capable of right now is all you'll ever be capable of, and that is a terrible waste, stunting your growth and locking you out of everything you could be. The real exhortation should be: Don't be mindless. Don't get stuck in a routine simply for the sake of the routine. Routines are good if they serve a higher purpose. They are great servants, and terrible masters. Know WHY you are doing, in everything you do. Don't do work simply for work's sake. Work should serve a higher purpose than simply keeping you breathing and maybe squirreling away a paltry sum for some nebulous retirement. You won't avoid work, so make work work for you. Everything happens according to a plan. If you're not building and furthering your plan, your life will be ruled by the plans of others. Don't worry about whether people hate you or not; that comes as naturally as human nature. Your success can be measured by only one person: you. Everyone WILL judge you, but none is justified in judging EXCEPT for you. If you accept their judgment, it is really you who is judging yourself, for better or for worse. Know the difference! So live, love, learn, teach, create, grow, succeed, fail, laugh, cry, suffer, comfort, transcend. It's your life, after all, and you only get one. |