We are two months in and I can say so far Amelia has been basically the perfect baby. She eats on a schedule, sleeps on a schedule, and is developing in most other aspects at or ahead of schedule. So, if she continues at this pace, I assume we will be swearing Dr. Amelia Barber into the oval office sometime in the future. However, just in case my completely unbiased prediction doesn't come true, and Amelia achieves a slightly less spectacular level of success, I have a few words of advice to Mia to ensure that she will still have it pretty good...
1) Do not procrastinate. This is one of the hardest rules to follow in life. If you can truly get all your work done before you go play, you are on top of your game. I admit there is a grotesquely fine line between procrastinating and simply not having enough time to pursue your dreams. For instance, I am still waiting to get my MBA, read tons of books, take up yoga, and become a writer. Now, its debatable how much of that is procrastination and how much of that is unattainable, due to time or ability. If you simply do the best job you can at discerning which goals are remotely achievable and working towards them early and often, eschewing innate human desire for instant gratification, you will go far in this life.
2) Understand where your fear resides...then go to his house and take his lunch money. Everyone is afraid of something. Those who know me, know that I have plenty of issues with fear. In some sense, the hypocrisy of me giving this advice is laughable. I am deathly afraid to fly, so what have I done to conquer that fear? Being the big, bad man that I am ... I completely avoided flying for about 10 years and only then did I fly once in lieu of losing my job. So, while I may not be the most shining example of following this advice, it is still solid advice. Beethoven couldn't hear his own music. It didn't make the composition any less of a classic. Fear will do nothing but cloud your judgement, force you to miss opportunities, and fill your life with regret. Fear is a bully. It will attack you and oppress you until you stand up for yourself and fight back.
3) Find a career you are passionate about. This one is really just a simple logic problem. If all people must have a job, and being forced to work makes people unhappy, and only people who are truly passionate about their job don't feel like it is "work", you MUST find a job you are passionate about or you will be unhappy.
4) Find a good group of friends. This might be the most important advice of the four since your friends can help ease the pain of not following the other three. I recently went to a wedding of a good friend. The crowd at this wedding was littered with people I have been friends with for 12 years - 40% of my life. Unfortunately, as time passes and life gets in the way, communication is not as easy as it should be. This fact meant that I had not spoken to some of these friends in months, and on the rare occasion, years. Even after this absence, the kinship felt as comfortable as an old t-shirt. There was nothing forced. There were no awkward pauses. If nature were to transport us back to our dorm rooms, we would seamlessly pick up where we left off some ten years ago. These guys are my brothers, it just so happens that we have different parents and didn't meet until we were eighteen. If you can get a group of friends to lean on in tough times and celebrate with in good times, you will never be alone in this world. I promise you, what you do to enrich the lives of those nearest to you and what you take away from those same people will shape who you become as a person.
Mia, you have a long time before you have to worry about most of this advice. I hope these will all come easy to you. However, I know I will play a great role in determining many of these aspects of your life. I am a firm believer in setting examples. 'Do as I say and not as I do' is the motto for people who are too lazy to change their ways. In this vain, I hope to use you as inspiration to make some changes in my life. So, perhaps soon I will put more passion into my career, procrastinate less, and fly more...well, two out of three isn't bad. I'll get started on that - tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment