Present Condition?

“Happiness is a present attitude – not a future condition”.   — Hugh Prather

You’ve seen the consistency with which I end virtually every post with, “Carpe diem”!

Carpe diem is a present attitude.

It is, of course, the concept of seizing the day.

I like to break it down even further to, “Seize the moment”.

This takes practice to be fully present. Often, I struggle with it when my workload gets really intense.

But I take comfort in my imperfection, forgive myself, and then move on and try to always do my best.

Keep trying. Keep forgiving. Keep doing your best. It’s the only path to being fully present.

Carpe diem, jeff noel 🙂

Chicken Soup For The Soul

Mark Victor Hansen writing tips:

Changing the world, one story at a time
Born Jan 8
www.YouPublish.com
Star Trek fan
Guinness Book of world records record holder, non-fiction
Inside Edge Jack & Mark
Andrew Carnegie – hand up or hand out
Dad was a baker – didn’t add skills
Can read 4,000 words a minute (?)
Stories must touch your heart
Write “Intoxicated, edit sober”
19 million books 1st year Teenage soul
Bucky Fuller
40 books
edit 9 times

Know what she said?

Know what she said?

Yesterday I heard one of our school’s middle-aged, elementary school teachers, with 35 years teaching experience, soliciting our parental feedback to make next year’s annual elementary, overnight camping trip more successful.

And in the process, she revealed two concepts I had to write down, because I thought they were profound. Now I’m sharing them with you.

First, she talked about the “Scared Privilege” it is to be a school teacher. And you could really feel her passion and sincerity.

It made me wonder what some of my sacred privileges are. Immediately, I had a decent list. Here are a few:

Being alive at Mid Life.

Being the parent of a student.

Being married.

Having good health and a roof over my head.

You know what it made me think?

It made me think. “Virtually everything we have is a sacred privilege”.

Secondly, she talked about her simple process for using any advice we give.

Tweak it or toss it“!

What she meant was if something isn’t working too well, tweak it. If it doesn’t make it better, toss it.

It made me wonder how long I hold onto something that doesn’t work, without even trying to tweak it.

So today, I promise to relish my scared privileges and tweak the way I find time to be in the moment of our Mid-Life Celebration.

Make it a sacred day, because if you don’t, who will? Carpe diem, jeff 🙂