My thoughts on... Living life

“If you’re not doing something with your life, then it doesn’t matter how long you live. If you’re doing something with your life, then it doesn’t matter how short your life may be. A life is not measured by years lived, but by its usefulness. If you are giving, loving, serving, helping, encouraging, and adding value to others, then you’re living a life that counts!”

John C. Maxwell

I hope to never be one of those people that have wasted life away. Even one day wasted is one day too many. I believe in being value added in every situation, even if it's just making someone laugh and forget what is going on around them. I'm thankful for the many people in my life that are value added and I know I'm lucky to have so many of them.  All I want to know is that at the end of the day, I've proved to be useful.

My thoughts on... The unexamined life

I know I can't be alone being fascinated by Socrates' statement that "The unexamined life is not worth living."  Think about it, he's not saying the unexamined life is less enjoyable or less meaningful, but that its not even worth living!!

This is because Socrates believed that the purpose of human life was personal and spiritual growth. How can any of us grow without a full understanding of who we are and what our true nature is.  This can only be be discovered by taking the time to examine and reflect upon our lives. 

This examination of our lives should and will reveal patterns of behavior. We learn to understand the subconscious programming of our minds, the way we determine how to live our lives. Unless we become aware of these patterns, much of life is just unconscious repetition.

Leo Rosten states "The purpose of life is not to be happy - but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all." If I'm not paying attention to the manner in which I'm living life, how do I fulfill such a goal?  If the purpose of life was to simply be happy, I don't think it would be to hard to achieve.  By diligently examining my thoughts and actions, I can improve and develop and grow.

This blog does a great job of  helping me examine my life.  I can reflect and see areas in which I need to mature.  I can look back on situations and think I'll never let myself get involved in something like that again.  Adversely, I can recognize when I've done something well and strive to achieve similar results. 

I'm going to make a daily effort to live an examined life, as I know I want a life that's worth living.

My thoughts on... a sad statistic

I heard a sad statistic today. It turns out that 6 out of 7 dwarfs aren't happy.

I can hear that every time and still laugh!

My thoughts on... my sister

So I walk in the house yesterday and our conversation went like this...


Little sister:  Why are you wearing your hat like that?

Me:  Like what?

Little sister:  Like a loser!

Me:  How does a loser wear their hat?

Little sister:  Like that!


Such a silly comment, so close to Christmas, someone is very brave...

My thoughts on... Something New

So they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. 
I decided if that's the case I better try something new. 
I guess I'll have to see if these results are any better. 

This is the problem...

How do you document real life, when real life is getting more like fiction everyday?