Watching my last place fantasy football team cruise towards win #2 on the season. It is a Pyrrhic victory, because I lost my starting running back to the Injured Reserve. It has been that kind of season–that kind of year really. I’ve reached some conclusions about who I am and what I want. Some surprised me while others just were a long time in their arrival. I know that I want to work at being a better teacher and a better writer, the second point being what I spoke to last night. Tonight I am more interested in the idea of looking inward to breakdown the outward problems.
It is obvious that people blame each other for the problems in their own lives. I am no exception. I used to be the guy who preached, “everything wrong in your world begins with you.” Somewhere along the way to 40 I forgot to practice what I preach and decided that most of the things screwed up in talisland were 100% not my fault and out of my control. None of that is true of course. We are each responsible for our own happiness and, to a lesser extent, responsible for the situations we are in. The way to work through any residual unhappiness is to think about what in life makes you the most happy and what in life is causing your unhappiness and try to change your situation–no matter what it takes or how hard it is.
The same friend that started me on this 10 minute rule once said to me, the one thing you need to do for your kids is to be a happy person. I think that rule is more universal. The one thing you need to do for yourself in your life is to be as happy as you possibly can. We don’t get another chance at living, so what we have now is all there will be. I for one intend for that time to be special.