January 06, 2005
Life's Journey Isn't Always By the Book
Be the change I see in the world! That is the challenge I've given myself for when I wake up everyday. I aspire to live by the book. Not by school's book, or my family's book, or anybody else's. I aspire to live my life by the what I've learned to be true.
But here's the thing that gets me - I don't. I don't always live by my book and I don't know if I ever can - exactly. I still get in large arguments with loved ones. I feel bad when things don't go my way. I feel behind when those close to me accomplish big feets. I still get nervous when interacting with new people. In other words, I still have trouble living by the book even though I've been pulling all-nighters to study it.
Do Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Mother Theresa, Gandhi, or the Da Lai Lama ever not live by their own book. From their writings, it would seem that life can be 'perfect' if you try hard enough and smart enough for long enough. I wish that people who were 'successful' would talk about these challenges more while they're having them.
I keep on wanting to wait until The Student Success Manifesto sells hundreds of thousands of copies of the book before I say, "Yea, it was a hard journey, but..." However, I feel I owe it to myself and to the people who are on a similar journey to talk more honestly about the internal challenges I face on a daily basis. I may lose credibility by admitting that my life isn't perfect and that everything isn't success, success, success, but here goes (eyes closed).
Posted at January 6, 2005 11:17 AM
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Dear Michael,
I love reading your posts as they are so insightful. I have often thought about that too- why these 'successful' people don't talk more about the challenges they faced. A book I recently read that did that was Gandhi's autobiography 'My Experiments with Truth'. Unlike most autobiographies, he spends a lot of time on his childhood and adolescent years talking about his struggles with moral issues/his imperfection/etc. It brings out the human side of him and how he was just like any other person growing up...what made him so great is he thought these issues through and later in life lead his life by 'his book'. Thanks for your post.
I think lots of successful people talk about challenges... they just don't brand themselves as "successful". Many truly successful people don't stop and say, oh "I'm successful".... in fact they probably say "Life is challenging."
It all goes back to the annoying paradox of "a perfect life isn't perfect" ... Maybe the key is to always chase ideals and 'perfection' knowing that it is impossible to achieve. Aiming for "some perfection" is the best. I love admiring a perfect moment, perfect situation, perfect execution, etc.... which are all created by challenges and imperfections.
Rich - I sort of agree that 'successful' people talk about their challenges. However, this is in retrospect after they've already made it most of the time. It is very different to talk about one's challenges as one's having them versus talking about them in retrospect after conquering them.
Devi - Thanks for the info on Gandhi's autobiography. I'm going to look into this.
Hi Michael,
St. Augstine's "Confessions" also talk a lot about his struggles, as does David Amram's "Vibrations." True, it's after-the-fact, but still you can feel their struggles as they went through them. I find that being part of groups (which act like support groups) is the best way to hear other people's struggles while they're going through them -- hearing theater producers talk about their struggles in theater producing, for example. I certainly wish there were more entrepreneur groups though.
