Ten Minas

finish what you start

 

You have to finish what you start. No matter what.

Of course you should quit the ugly or unimportant things and habits that are holding you back and you should quit them now, but this is not our concern.

You need to finish what you started.

Sadly for many of us this just doesn’t happen. 

We are very good at starting things. Quick at getting excited, but when the motivation flees and disappears, what remains are half read books, incomplete plans, half diets, abandoned training programs, and way too many broken dreams.

It’s not easy.

Finishing is never easy. 

Most things worth sweating over take a very long time to get done. 

Dreams require renewable commitment. They require steady and persistent motivation. 

Finishing things needs to become a habit. A habit and a daily chore.

One of the ways we procrastinate is simply to invent something else for us to do. 

Something better. Something urgent. Something more fulfilling.

Spring comes and you’ll begin to clean your garage but before you can finish you’ll go outside and start on the garden, and before that gets finished the patio furniture will be out and you’ll have invited all your friends for a spontaneous bbq. But what happened to the garage? What happened to the garden? 

This bait and switch is very tricky business.

Take my life for example.

I have been writing these little thoughts of mine since January of 2017. 

Something happened early that year and I was inspired once again to become a writer. A professional writer to boot. But the only way to be a professional writer is to commit yourself to a lifetime of writing and get down to business every single day. It’s not the number of books you sell that matters. Ok, money gives you a lot more time to write, but it doesn’t make you a writer. What separates the amateur from the professional is the amount of work they choose to do daily and if they actually have the will to do it.

This last Christmas I pondered how long I could keep these writings going and I decided that before they stop suddenly, I really needed an end date. Since I will be teaching for another four years, I thought the natural thing to do was to  keep them going for that long. 

I thought deeply about it. I made my decision. I made a sincere commitment.

Recently however, I’ve been getting second thoughts. I’m being pulled and inspired to write fantasy novels. I have a great semblance of a plot and some really imaginative characters. One of them is a half dwarf named OX who finds and adopts this little deaf mute baby boy which he names Mek. I really want to take the time to tell you more, but that is exactly my point.

I need to finish what I started.

I need to keep the promise I made to myself.

I need to honour my commitment to this particular work.

I will keep writing for better or worse, no matter what, because I fear the danger of the whole damn thing imploding on me.I’m afraid that if I don’t see this through, if I don’t honour the next four years, than it will all be for nothing. 

I will end up with a bunch of half finished nothing and in turn be able to do absolutely nothing with it. 

I fear that once I get accustomed to living like a bee and floating from one flower to the next, it will be impossible to stop. I have to be the worker bee and the Queen.

But enough about me.

I sincerely hope you finish what you start.

Don’t ever abandon your work or foreclose on your dreams. 

Resurrect them from the dead if necessary.

Renew your motivation.

Grow in tenacity.

Finish what you start.

 

I lost, so now what?

 

I lost.

And so now what?

Last night I entered my first Toastmasters International speech contest and I lost. There were three other competitors, and while I held my own, I did not move on to the next round. I wasn’t even runner up!

It stings a little. I won’t lie. 

But I guess that’s a good thing considering the alternative possibilities of overreacting how life is not fair, or pretending not to care at all. 

Those are not very attractive alternatives.

But it still stings a little.

Losing is not fun. Winning seems so much better.

And looking back, I think I prepared myself well enough. I think I wrote a good speech. I told the small audience a moving story about tears. I spoke about how we should not be ashamed of our tears. How Dr. Viktor Frankl wrote that tears were a sign of courage. That they showed the courage to suffer and that finding a reason for our suffering was extremely empowering. 

I encouraged everyone present to find a reason for their pain, whatever that pain might be, so that their suffering ceases to be suffering any longer.

I told them to find their why, so that they could face and bear any how.

I think I was funny, charming, personable, and above everything else, I spoke from my heart.

You can’t go wrong speaking from the heart.

Sure, the speech could have been more polished. For starters I didn’t have to rub my nose so much, as I have a habit to doing when I’m in a dry room, or when I’m nervous. In hindsight, I could have asked someone with some experience for some judging criteria. I could have schooled myself and not just assumed what the judges were looking for. 

I could have rehearsed more. 

I should have. Could have. Would have.

Didn’t.

I lost.

It’s over.

And failure is an event. 

It’s dead and gone.

Time to do something else.

Time to write another speech, for another time.

Time to get back to what needs doing.

Time to get back to dreaming a little bit more.

But what did I learn here?

I learned that its ok if what I have to say is not for everyone.

Last night that was certainly the case.

I learned that I don’t really need a grand audience, but only crave a little audience of my own. A small little tribe that wants more. A few people who want to hear from me once in a little while. 

How I would have loved to stay behind last night and have the opportunity to continue the conversation and get to know anyone who was touched in any way by my words. 

They are the reason why I write every morning. They are the reason why I speak. Why I have my sights set on publishing in the very near future.

I write because I am tired of hiding. I have hid behind shyness and noteworthiness for long enough. Now, I have an insatiable desire to connect with people. To inspire them. Encourage them. To offer them a little bit of hope.

But now what?

The morning after.

I guess its back to diggin’ ditches.

Back to writing and speaking about the world I see.

Back to the next Toastmasters meeting next Tuesday. 

Back to preparing more speeches. 

Back to editing the Quintessential Quotables. 

Back to learning. 

Back to what needs to be done.

Back to the beautiful act of living.

 

tenacity of persistence

 

Inky Johnson calls it ‘the process’. He says you have to love it or you won’t get anywhere.

You have to commit to it and love it.

You have to love to edit. Rehearse. Love to practice.

You have to push through. Everyday.

Without exception.

One day at a time. One hour at a time. 

Sometimes, one breath at at time.

Through ups and downs.

Through sickness. Disappointment. Through failure.

Through sunny days as much as frigid days.

Through winter and summer.

Through it all you have to develop the tenacity of persistence.

You must summon a divine patience.

Unwavering commitment.

An inner will others fail to unearth.

But this doesn’t mean you are special. It doesn’t mean you’re particularly gifted. It just means you have the tenacity to finish what you started.

And it all just boils down to persistence.

Tenacity. Patience. Persistence.

You have to think about the end, but you can’t get there until tomorrow.

But there is work to be done today. Work that cannot wait.

Important work. Meaningful work.

Work that you can’t afford to miss.

Because if it ligers til tomorrow, you won’t be able to get to the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing.

You won’t know what you need to know. You won’t learn what you should have learned. You won’t see what you were meant to see.

Persistence helps you get unstuck.

It helps you gain perpetual motion.

Persistence helps you adjust course precisely because you are always moving.

But why do so many people lack in persistence?

Why are they in love with the results but abhor the process?

Why do we embrace heroes and fail to become heroines?

It’s worth the time to contemplate.

I think you’re important.

I think what you have to offer the world is important.

I think your dreams are worth some tenacity and persistence.

Oodles and oodles of tenacity and persistence.

Don’t get discouraged.

Don’t see failure as a sign to stop and pack up.

As an indication to leave and go somewhere else.

You will make mistakes because you are never meant to know and see what you were never meant to know and see. You were given the task to make educated guesses. To act on a hunch. To test your hypothesis. You were born to make the best decision you can, with whatever you were given and whatever time that you’ve got. 

There is a great deal of stuff we face each and every day and it gets overwhelming sometimes. It is often beyond our control. Outside our force of influence. Things happen for a reason, which is strange, why we are so willing to shoulder so much of the blame for everything. Why we think we have failed, when in fact mistakes are things, not people.

I’m not suggesting that we avoid personal responsibility and hide from our morality.

Far from it.

I’m suggesting that we are often too hard on ourselves when we happen to make a mistake. Far too harsh when we fail. Without good reason because failure is just part of the process. An opportunity to learn. An invitation for growth. A chance to go back and go left when we went right.

Life calls for persistence.

It calls for much tenacity of persistence.

Life tests your resolve with obstacles that are not meant to punish you or keep you down, but to challenge you. To help you overcome yourself and make you a more pleasant and complete human being.

You’re important.

We need the very best of you.

Summon your tenacity and be persistent.

Embrace ‘the process’

Keep going.

 

it's not complicated

It’s not complicated.

Dream it. 

Plan it. 

Work for it.

But sometimes it all falls apart.

Sometimes we get in our own way. Sometimes, we tell ourselves stories that don’t serve us too well. We await big opportunities, seek inspiration and puddle jump from one exciting event to another, but what we really need is a bit of truth. A bit of the ordinary.

I read an exchange recently between Jacko Willink and one of his fans.

This young man wanted to know how he could avoid carbohydrates. He wanted to hear some insights and wisdom on how to persevere over his temptation. He explained that ever since he was a little boy, he loved indulged gorged on bread and sweets. He struggled with this, his entire life. Recently though he made some changes and experienced great results. But still, in his weakest, darkest moments, he always gos back to the carbs. No matter how hard he tries or what technique he employs, he continuously becomes the victim.

He wanted to know and asked Jacko Willink what he should do.

The reply was swift and not overly complicated.

“Don’t put it in your mouth”.

Simple. Direct. To the point.

Don’t put it in your mouth cuts right through everything. It stops all the stories because it doesn’t matter what your life was like as a child. It doesn’t matter how sexy and seductive bread is. How wide your ass is getting. 

It doesn’t matter how busy your life is. How hard you’ve tried. How good you’ve been. 

It doesn’t matter what your metabolism is doing or how negligent your overactive thyroid gland is becoming. 

It doesn’t matter that your gym isn’t open early enough, or that you’re to tired to exercise when you get home from work.

What matters at all.

What matters is that you don’t put that shite in your mouth.

Simple.

The same holds true for all other aspects of your life and you are the key to everything.

You have to stop overcomplicating things and gathering your friends to your side to discuss how unfair life is, and how hard you’ve tried.

You have to stop blaming yourself, blaming your mother, blaming your father, blaming your children, or blaming Donald Trump for that matter.

Just don’t put it in your mouth.

Go and do something.

Dream out loud.

Make a plan.

Work your ass off.

There is little use in getting excited or going to motivational seminars if you’re not prepared to commit to the years of work that it will take to see things through.

There is little use blaming your past mistakes, or getting upset about how little time you have left, because that too doesn’t matter.

What matters is that you’re alive.

What matters is that you have something to give.

What matters is that you have time.

All you need is the effort.

It’s not complicated.

Becoming rich and famous is complicated.

But happiness and success are quite simple.

Do what you can.

When you can.

Correct your course.

And don’t ever. 

Ever.

Don’t ever put it in your mouth. 

 

deep or wide?

Are you digging deep or digging wide?

Pushing far below the surface, or just skimming along the top?

And don’t be so quick to answer. Give yourself some time. 

Let the questions percolate for a little while. Let them rise to the surface.

Summon the courage to examine your life and answer truthfully.

Take a look what you’re doing. Why you’re doing what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with. Who are you doing it for. 

Your answers are important.

Very important.

Important, because digging deep or digging wide, springs forth different consequences. It showers your life with different things. 

Your effort in going wide will be as debilitating as going deep, but in the end, digging deep will prove to be the only thing that matters. Digging wide, always shows itself to be frustratingly shallow and fruitless. 

Going wide is always short lived.

Short lived because when you dig wide you end up everywhere.

Yes, you make great strides. Garner great interest. 

Receive countless compliments along the way.

But you’ll soon be stuck.

Stuck in something you won’t be able to let go.

You’ll get the work done quickly and seem most satisfied and gratified. 

You’ll feel so alive looking at all the directions you can to go. The wide open plain. Your opportunities and possibilities will seem endless. You’ll feel so alive and free. The dirt will feel so soft and fluffy in your hands. 

The work will purport to be easy and light. Until you wake up one day and realize that you’ve wasted many years digging a trench that connects nothing and runs from one unassuming place to another. A passage without a purpose. A trench without meaning. A shallow little ditch of little value and no use.

Going wide has dire consequences.

Going deep on the other hand isn’t easy.

It’s damn hard.

The earth will be tough. It will get harder and harder the deeper you go. 

You’ll need more time. More patience and a hell of a lot of brute force.

Unlike digging wide, you’ll live in deafening silence and hear no applause. 

You won’t feel very motivated or excited by the monotony of your work.

You’ll sweat, curse, curse a lot, and ask yourself why the hell you’re digging this God forsaken hole in the ground. A hole that goes very deep. A hole that nobody else seems to see because they’re too busy digging trenches that stretch far and wide.

After several years of this, you’ll find yourself deep inside. 

It will be dark and cold. 

Freezing.

You’ll feel lonely and abandoned. 

You’ll look up and wonder why you’ve undertaken this thankless quest anyway. Why you’ve burned so much of your time and expanded so much energy. 

Why did you go deep? 

Why did you dig so far below?

Why didn’t you follow everybody else?

Why didn’t you go wide?

And then the sky will rip open. The heavens will shake and the rains will come.

Water will pour down and you will finally understand.

You will see the fruit of your work rise to the surface.

You will see the value of the many years of meaningful suffering. 

You’ll see the value of your friendships. 

You will understand hope. 

The power of faith. 

The transformative power of love.

two plus one

Two plus one is all you need to get there. 

Just focus your mind and commit yourself to accomplishing two tasks per day, and one more for good measure, at some point by the end of the week.

2 + 1.

That’s all. 

Simple.

Nothing to it.

It’s very important to dream. To prioritize the day and find the time to be still and quiet. It’s very important to dream and listen to our fluttering  thoughts. They are the inspiration to any good endeavour or artistic enterprise. 

But dreams won’t materialize on their own. Thoughts don’t just turn to things by sheer imagination.

Every great idea demands purposeful action. It begs for a good design and tenacious execution.

But you don’t have to do it all in one day.

The Notre Dame Cathedral took over two hundred years to build. Two hundred!

Her construction spanned the entire gothic period. Think about that. That means that the first person who broke ground, and flung the dirt aside, never saw its full majesty. 

Their children never saw the work finished either. They sweated and toiled, and yet, their grandchildren probably never saw the work finished either. Yet there it stands and attracts millions and millions of tourists to Paris. 

It has been the subject of many great novels over the years and has become an important symbol not only of faith, but also an artistic and historical marvel that preserved the gothic period within which it was built.

Your dreams won’t be built in a day, and the bigger they are, the longer they will take to accomplish.

You have to start today.

You must make a plan.

Write down precisely what the next set of steps are going to be.

Do two things that will make a difference.

It could be a phone call you are dreading of making. Perhaps a meeting you’ve been putting off for a while. Maybe its sticking to a better diet so you have more energy. Or an exercise routine so you don’t have to be in battled with your waist. 

Looking better and feeling better can have a multiplying effect in all aspects of your life.

Perhaps you have to write for an extended period of time. Maybe you have to sing or work with numbers. You have to practice or rehearse. You have to fail, get up, and correct course.

Maybe you need to get a mentor or a tutor. Maybe you need an assistant, or an employee. Or maybe you need learn something new through an online course.

Perhaps you need a date planner. 

Whatever it is. Break it down to two very manageable tasks a day, and one more by the end of the week.

In any given week you will have done fifteen things that will inch you closer towards your dreams. By the end of the month you will have completed sixty. In a given year, you are looking at over seven hundred and twenty steps towards where you want to be. In a decade, you’re going to build a wall containing some seven thousand polished stones.

2+1

Simple.

Nothing to it.

And remember.

Your grandchildren can never finish what you never started to begin with.

in the middle of nowhere

 

There are days like today, where I feel like I’m in the middle of nowhere.

It’s not that I have done something wrong or that I’m not doing something right. It’s just that sometimes, life gets a touch monotonous, without any signs or inclinations, and it’s at those moments that I seem a bit lost and a whole lot of anxious.

It feels like I’m in the middle of nowhere.

Tumble weeds. Corn fields. A wide-open road and nothing in sight for as far as the eye can see.

Nothing seems terribly concerning though and that seems to be part of the problem.

Fighting fires and rushing from one crisis to the next, is far more exhilarating, but finding yourself in the middle of nowhere, offers none of the adrenalin or endorphins a good crisis can generate (made up or otherwise).

Those unassuming, uneventful, one foot in front of the other, can in time become very troubling.

They feel so wrong. Like I should be doing something. Doing anything.

Doing more.

Like I have missed and forgotten something.

Like I should be working harder. Planning more. Wishing more. Moving things from one place to another, even if they don’t need to be moved. That I should be checking things. Double checking things. Cleaning. Purging. Moving some more. Somewhere. Anywhere.

Constantly moving.

Until you get tired. Tired of moving. Hoping to get out of nowhere.

But doing so is counterproductive and harmful.

It helps to know being nowhere is sometimes the best place to be and it releases some of the unpleasant anxiety.

(Some of it).

It still doesn’t feel right, but it feels much better later, when I look back and feel grateful for saving myself from spinning a narrative and creating drama not worth the performance.

I feel grateful that I don’t have to undo or double back and begin anew.

Made up problems will certainly get you out of nowhere, and they are tempting, that’s for sure, but they will only put you on a trajectory course toward somewhere, where you don’t want to be.

When life becomes predictable and monotonous, when it becomes a matter of routine, sometimes the shortest way out, is the long way through.

You will never see a magic exit. There is no secret ladder. No secret path.

The middle of nowhere is not a place to run away from.

It’s just the middle of nowhere.

It’s a place like no other, and it too will pass into the distance.

We love starting and finishing things, it feels so great, but it’s the stuff in the middle that give us the biggest cause for concern.

It’s the stuff in the middle that will make the biggest difference.

Being stuck nowhere is a sign that we’re actually going somewhere.

How you handle yourself in the dark cold days of winter, when everything plays dead, determines with what tenacity you will embrace the coming of spring, when it finally does arrive announced.

When spring and summer comes, will you be exhausted and tired from all that worrying and waiting? Or will you be ready to welcome them with open arms?

How you respond to life in those quiet moments, when she is determined to show you what is going to happen next.

She loves a cheerful giver. A patient teacher.

She watches your every move, when you’re alone.

Alone.

In the middle of nowhere.

 

lily pads

 

There is a shadowy force in our life that is always working against us. A power that wages war against our dreams. Trying to slow us down and grind our efforts into dust. Hoping to lure us into taking the easy road, into resigning ourselves to a life of quiet reservation. A comfortable life, where we stir up no more trouble and abandon our foolish desires for things that hang out of reach.

We must battle these forces. We must rise up against them, because otherwise, nothing ever happens. It’s as though life demands to know how serious we are. How focused. How desperate How truly deserving.

Life demands to know what cost we are willing to bear.

The spoils of war go to the last woman standing.

Steven Pressfield calls it the resistance.

Seth Godin calls it the Lizard brain.

A carry over from our evolutionary human history, which means well and aims to keep us safe. Safe from things we no longer need to be protected from. Safe and hidden from opportunities and great personal success.

One of the strategies that this mysterious force (this Lizard brain) employs against us, is very subtle.

It uses the multiplicity of dreams to slow down and destroy our work.

It’s been over a year since I made the commitment to write every day, in the hopes of publishing Quintessential Quotables, along with Diggin’ Ditches, sometime in 2018.

Recently though, my mind has been flooded with passionate desires to write fiction. To abandon what I have been doing and take a new direction toward writing some great detective stories.

I have always been in love with Sherlock Holmes, especially the BBC version with Jeremy Brett, as the great detective.  

I have been thinking and dreaming about how great it would feel to create a new memorable series of quintessential characters. To immerse myself in a fictitious world responding to my every whim and desire. To abandon this madness of non-fiction. To breathe life into something else. Something new. To give birth to a better dream.

Better.

How glorious that would feel? How great it would be?

Very.

But that is exactly the danger.

This is exactly how I’ve managed to muck things up in the past, by abandoning every endeavour I have ever attempted.

I never finished anything.

Like a young frog, at the precipice of spring time, I kept on jumping from one shiny lily pad to another. Hoping that happiness and success, was only one hop away. That the fulfilment of my dreams was dependent on landing on the right one.

The truth is that we have nothing without finishing what we start.

We need to resist the temptation to begin something new, before we have a chance to finish what seems old.

Only by being done. By being finished. By reaching the end, can we take the next step and know if we made something worthwhile. If our dream will come true. If we are on edge of greatness or defeat.

But without the end, without persistence, we can be falsely seduced to a perpetual life of distraction.

Without honouring our original commitment, we will be left with nothing but frustration and questions of what went wrong.

Regardless of our effort, we need to produce a result. We owe it to ourselves to discover if we’ve made something good, or if it’s a bit funky, and we need to make something else.

Shiny bright lily pads are seductively distracting.

None of them have intrinsic magical powers.

Running from here to there seems like progress, but it’s a trap.

The best way through, is just to stay where you are, and keep doing what you’ve been doing.

I know it doesn’t sound particularly exciting and that’s because it isn’t.

It’s work.

Just gold old fashioned, boring, hidden work.

That’s what you need to embrace the most.

Don’t get seduced by anything else.

Don’t get tired hoping from one lily dream to the next.

Get tired finishing something that you started.

 

do something

 

You can do something.

Yes you can.

I didn’t say anything and everything.

Trying to do everything or anything is a trap for perfectionists and procrastinators alike. The former works with great intensity, but never gets anywhere, because there is always everything to do. And the latter, gets nothing done, because they are never ready, forever waiting, never feeling good enough, for anything.

Anything.

Anything is like foolishly grasping for a cow’s teat in the dark, when you know, you’re lactose intolerant.

Everything is simply unrealistic and stupid.

So, go and do something.

Something doesn’t have to be perfect, but you do have to begin.

You have to begin today.

Remember, that you don’t have to be great to begin, but you do have to begin in order to be great. (Zig Ziglar)

So, start right now.

Without excuses.

Find something to do. Something purposeful. Something meaningful. Something that will reimagine your life and give you a second childhood.

How, you say?

It doesn’t matter.

Think back to your early years and begin there. Look for your dreams. Look for any forgotten pinky swears. Look for things you promised you would do. Look for something that you might have forgotten, which made you feel so good inside. So happy. So alive. So divinely human.

On a piece of paper, perhaps in a stream of consciousness, write down anything and everything that comes to mind. Somewhere in the distorted anythings and everythings, you will find your something.

You will discover your something. Your purpose. Your new direction.

I had forgotten how much I loved to write.

For the last eighteen years, I devoted myself to teaching young people how to become better writers and thinkers, but in the process, of making a very comfortable living, I forgot to write myself.

I found my something.

I’m at the beginning steps of writing something. A hesitant beginning towards something great.

I don’t know where I am going, or what I am really doing, but when I look around, I see painters, musicians, and other writers, doing their thing, every day.

Writing is difficult enough, and to be rewarded and blessed by making a living at it, is infinitely more so.

Part of me is scared and uncertain but I have carefully avoided the trap of everything and anything. I have begun. Begun to do something.

This blog is my something. Quintessential Quotables and Diggin’ Ditches is the next thing.

I write every day.

I reach my word count. I ship it, and awkwardly begin the process of telling the world about it.

My steps are unsure, reserved, cautious, but purposeful.

My hope for you, is that you do something too.

It really doesn’t take much, to do something. To do something every day.

To dream. To plan. To learn. To be and do.

Don’t get overwhelmed with everything and settle for anything.

Become something. Dream something. Dig something. Fall in love with something.

Become something you were meant to be.

Be great one day, but begin today.

 

for what?

 

For what?

Why do you work so hard? Sweat so hard? Stress so much?

For what?

Why do you do it?

For Money?

Expanding all that magnificent effort, so you can gather a few bills in one place, and watch them grow?

But it’s not really about the money, you say. You work hard to provide the necessities of life, and to do otherwise, would be utter foolishness.

You need all that money, to fulfill all your many physiological needs.

To quench your thirst and soothe your hunger. To keep your head out of the cold, and away from the rain, sleet, and snow.

These are basic needs.

Needs of safety. Needs of belonging. Needs of a self-esteem. Needs of becoming self-actualized.

And it’s a hierarchy, don’t you know. You cannot really get to the next level without having mastered the previous one. You can’t be fully human, unless you work hard, and sweat hard, and stress, oh so much.

Those are signs of progress. Wounds of respect.

And so, you give your life for a what. You fight and cheat for a what. You stay up late at night worrying about the what.

For what?

Motivated by it. Obsessed by it. Controlled by it. Overwhelmed by it.

But shouldn’t you think about the who?

Who, not what.

Shouldn’t you work hard, so you have the time and means to spend it with the people you love? But if the work you do, drives you crazy, makes you wake up before them, and return home after them, don’t you think it’s about time to ask why you do that work in the first place?

Don’t lie. Don’t say you’re sacrificing yourself for them. You’re not a soldier. You’re not a revolutionary. You bang keystrokes all day. You move paper from a to b. You pick through, looking for the best donut, before another, useless, and too all-consuming staff meeting.

Your children want their mother and father. They do, but they squawk like a hungry baby bird in a nest calling for supper, and demand all sorts of things. Things, if you work so hard to get, they will soon forget.

You wife and husband too. They want you. Not what you provide but who you are.

Your parents and grandparents, also want your company.

They want your time. They want to share their life with you, and in turn have an opportunity to bask in the life you’ve created.

It’s not the what that you should focus on.

It’s the who.

Who matters in your life? Who is in your corner? Who deserves your time? The best part of the day? Your most rested self? Your best self? Your unconditional self?

Who?

In the Kite Runner, Amir asks Hassan, if he would do something for him. Hassan answered, “for you, a thousand times over”.

How beautiful.

How perfect.

For you, a thousand times over.

Life demands that we work hard. It is our calling. Our responsibility. Our destiny.

But life doesn’t tell us why.

So, what will it be?

When you go to battle today, will you do it for a what or a who?