Map of Your Life

**Sorry folks, decided to take a break from trying to be funny for once. Just wanted to ramble on some thoughts on being successful, happy, and living well...

In American life we all have the constant struggle of finding the balance between trying to succeed and trying to enjoy life. This comes up in so many ways in our everyday lives. If you eat a doughnut, you'll enjoy it, but it will hurt your quest to be thin... If you take that 2 week trip to Europe, you'll have life-long memories, but you may get passed up for that promotion you want. The question we must all answer is how do we value these things. In order to do this, we must first decide what our individual value system is. To come up with it, we must answer some very tough, soul searching questions that don't have right and wrong answers. For me, a few of the questions are... "how much do I really care what others think?," "do I care more about my own happiness or the happiness of other people?," and "how important is money?" Now if you quickly answered... "I don't care," "other people's happiness," and "not importsnt at all" then you had better be helping Somolian orphins to learn calculus and I'd still question that you don't care what people think. But my main point is that any answer to these questions is totally valid and fine, as long as they are your true choices. The mistake that people too often make is not ever answering these types of questions and letting your surroundings dictate your answers. Society often tells us that money and success is more valuable then free time. If you don't think this is true, then tell me why our average work week is much longer then almost every other country in the world? We just come out of the womb as work-a-holics? How do you think people would look at you if you worked 3 days a week and just never planned on buying a house or a nice car? In many circles you would be looked at as a loser. But if you don't care what people thought and had enough to get by, couldn't a 20 hour work week be THE BEST CHOICE to be happy?! The fact that this is considered an unworthy way to live to me is very sad. Now am I saying that is the best way to live? Hell no. I personally have things I want to accomplish because I will be happier that way. Achievement is a high value for me. Having said that, I all the time find myself chosing things like an afternoon basketball game, a family weekend, or a night out at a bar over staying home and working. Why? Well, family, friends, fun, and memories are all very high values for me as well.

Now I know this is where some smart ass is reading this and saying to himself... "This is hysterically simple... just find a job you love and you get both!" Well thank you Socrates, but in reality no matter how much we love our jobs, there will always be a fair amount of days that we'd rather not work at all. Now I'm not saying that the fictitious annoying smartass doesn't have a point. If you like or love your job then you are way better off. But it is far to simple minded to leave it at that. There are parts to every job that are less than fun, but often those are the parts that make you ultra successful. How much of them should you do? WHich is more valuable, your time in your 20's or your 60's? And what if the time you spent at your job cost you your marriage or your chances to meet that perfect someone? It may be obvious to say that our life is a product of all the choices we make, but bearing that in mind, shouldn't we reexamine these major life altering choices almost everyday?

Random question: Do you think people in small African villages have mid-life crises? I don't know for sure, but I'd guess no. I think that mid-life crisis are our way of going...

"Holy shit! I've been making a whole crapload of huge decisions with my life and I never really stopped to think about any of them! Boy I wish I had thought of this earlier... Do I want children?... Uh, I guess I don't really have a choice anymore. I hope it's not my turn to clean the poop."

Or something like that.

Hell, people have started having quarter life crises which I personally think is a step in the right direction! It means that people are asking those questions 25 years earlier! I can only hope that the next generation starts having 1/12 life crisis at age 9. At the end of the day, all I'm trying to say is that we all need to spend a little time each day searching our souls for the map of our lives. Because if we don't, then we'll end up following our parent's map, or society's map, or some map we found crumpled up in the back parking lot of an Arbie's, and while those may all lead you to have a decent, happy life or a homeless guy's shoe collection, those will never lead you to the life you were meant to have. Because those answers can only be found within you. As for me, I'm gonna to do some script writing, eat a doughnut, and then get some sleep. Enjoy the trip and I hope you have the time of your life.

-Scot