"Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better" - , philosopher
Every day I try to be better. No matter how small or how large this daily achievement is, I can go to sleep knowing that I have improved myself. Perhaps I finished (or started) an article or booked a speaking engagement. Maybe I went for a long walk in the mountains and made a conscious decision to work on my navigation (as I did yesterday). These things, I sub-consciously add up and their effect multiplies. They drive me to achieve more and more. I improve myself as a by-product of doing something I enjoy. My job.
I am able to do this because I have sought to follow my passion. It is difficult, nigh on impossible to better yourself doing something which you do not enjoy. How can you give your all to a task when all you can think about is doing something else, anything else? Month after month of going through the paces. Sure you pick up your pay check at the end of the month. So what? You need to better yourself as a person not just your bank balance.
Whether you work in the city doing 80 hour weeks or on a fishing boat in the Bering Sea, if you love what you do, you have the freedom to be better.
Funny, I just wrote a letter to my little sisters expressing more or less the same thing. I wish someone had challenged me in this way when I was younger. It is so easy, particularly in America, I think, to be caught up in the mediocrity of a vanilla everyday life. We have a tendency here to define ourselves by what we own rather than by who we are and what we can accomplish, which is most unfortunate. We pay lip service to minimalism and the development of the mind and spirit, but in the meantime you better drive a car made after 2005 or you’ll be considered totally lame. I can’t wait to get out of this country–one more year!
That said, I’m sure this attitude isn’t exclusive to the U.S.–I saw quite a bit of it in London, actually–but it does feel terribly prevalent here. I haven’t spent enough time in Europe to know how it holds true there. Do you find a similar attitude in France at all?
Same in France! I think it is a human trait. Don’t get me wrong, I dig a giant flat screen TV as much as anyone but I am not willing to own one in exchange for spending more time indoors or paying it off on credit. I am pretty sure when I am an old man sitting around with my grandkids, I am not going to care too much about my TV. I will be too busy regaling them with my past glories! Ha!
Mediocrity sucks!
I hear temptation’s voice too–especially now that I’m employed by a well-established outdoor equipment company and therefore have the most obscene discounts available to me. It would be so easy to justify stocking up on expensive boots and equipment, “Oh, um, of course I’ll need that on the Inca Trail or when I’m sailing across the Mediterranean or surfing in Costa Rica, even though I’ll be packing everything I own on my back…..” I’m in the process of taking a year or so to set my affairs in order and get rid of all I own before I set off on my travels. How do you decide what to leave and what to take?
Staff discount is a dangerous thing for sure! Deciding on what you need to take….? A tough one I reckon. I tend to do a few “re-drafts” so to speak. An initial pack, let it sit for a while. Go back again and pare it down a bit more till you are comfortable. I always like to give myself one or two items that I cannot do without. Luxury items, if you will (if you can call a Benchmade folding knife a luxury!). I reckon methods of packing for a long trip can be used for a big life change as well. Strip the superfluous, keep a luxury and away you go!