Life’s Lessons
Is every generation doomed to learn life’s lessons the hard way or is there anything of worth that we can take from those who came before us?
Independent Thinking
Independence of thought is one of the most important of all human traits. If you think of approaching things in a way that you deem to be the popular way you will never ever work it out for yourself. You will always be just as right or wrong as everybody else. Without independence of thought Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Hawking and untold others would never have made their world changing discoveries.
Fig. 4 Charles Darwin Image Source: Charles Darwin
Lessons Learned
You can learn a lot from others, but it is your own failures that are going to teach you the most valuable lessons in life. Learn from your failures, embrace them, and use them to drive you on to success. As the saying goes – “Only those who are asleep make no mistakes”.
Fig. 5 Image Source: Saturn V Launch Carrying Apollo 11 to Moon
Aim High and Dare to Dream
If you never dare to aim big you will never make it big. Look for that which could be rather than that which was. Without dreams you can never live a dream yet alone realize one. Dare to dream and anything is possible. Nothing is hard in a dream, not even going to the moon. Remember humans dreamt of going to the moon for eons and we eventually got there.
Fig. 6 Image Source: Neil Armstrong on the Moon
Don’t Fret
Don’t fret about the things that you can’t control. Learn to live with things that happen. Stressing out can only send you to an early grave. Remember that you can’t change the past, but you can change how you respond to events.
Tomorrow May Never Come
It is inevitable that sooner or later the worst will happen and there may be no more tomorrows. Make sure you have a lifetime’s worth of wonderful yesterdays. As they say “memories are golden”.
Fig. 7 Image Source: Love
Love
Make the most of each day. Make sure that you let the people you care about know it. Don’t worry about the little trials and tribulations in your life. That’s what life is all about. Just ensure that you spend your time doing the things you love and being with those you love. In other words, focus on what you love, not on what the thing you love may get you.
Now is the Time
Happiness is here but only if you stop resisting and start accepting what is; rather than what if. Live every moment to the fullest. A wasted moment is a wasted moment forever. You can never get it back or relive it.
Fig. 8 Image Source: Time
Health
In the vast majority of instances wealth cannot buy you good health, once it’s gone. Endless surgery and pharmaceutical regimes are not much fun. In 1986 the World Health Organization in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion said health is “a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living.
Fig. 9 Image Source: Health
If you are young and strong then be happy and live life now because you won’t be young and strong forever.
Satisfaction
Keeping up with the Jones’s only means that you are pursuing other peoples’ dreams. Pursue your own, they are inimitably more fun.
Fig. 10 Image Source: Sunrise
With each passing day comes a new tomorrow. Don’t worry; be happy.
Liked it
-
-
-
-
-
Post CommentC Jordan
On March 3, 2009 at 10:04 am
Wise words.
Chris Stonecipher
On June 10, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Gives up good things to contemplate. I enjoyed reading your article.
Anonymous
On July 1, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Great article, but I must object to the pattern used as a background — it makes the LCD on my laptop go INSANE and prevents me from reading anything on the site.
Brian
On July 31, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Delightful article to read.
One complaint though. The moon landings are used as an illustration/suggestion that one should dream big. To some degree I disagree.
In my opinion the moon landings were a real failure. Nothing much came out of it. They (NASA) have even lost the original video tapes of the landings AND the blue prints for the Saturn V rocket – the one pictured taking off. (Hard to believe but true). Now the Shuttle’s life is about to end and the US will have no way to get to the space station except to hire the Russian’s very old Sputnik technology. (I guess they saved the blue prints.)
OK, this was only meant as an illustrative example. I know. But I mean it in the same way. The guys I grew up with (I am 54 now) who had the biggest dream all fell on their faces really hard and now have nothing, not even a reasonable job. There has been NO exceptions. NASA is, in fact, a good example of this.
I would have said, dare to dream BUT also keep your foot on the ground. And I wouldn’t use the dead end moon landings as any kind of an example.
My life has taught me that the most important thing is being realistic.
PS. I was 14 when Apollo 11 happened. I was enamoured and glued to the TV set for the 28 hours of the broadcast of the landing. I have not bones to pick with NASA. I wrote what I wrote because I consider it to be a good example of the necessity of being realistic. Brian.
Brian
On July 31, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I meant Russia’s old Soyutz technology, not Sputnik. Sorry about that.