THE END!

 

Though most of us won’t admit it, we are secretly inhibited (and anxious) about our end, desiring to know when it will end. Maybe that’s why we lose ourselves setting goals and courting greatness. Beyond the natural need to nurture our time and talents, we also do so to help maintain our balance, which is more elusive than we admit.

Even so, we are deeply concerned about our end; not, however, simply about the outcome of our efforts but more so about what happens when life has left us. This concern inspired existentialism, fatalism and every other historical ism. It also inspired the wisdom of the sages as revealed through the ages. A sense of mortality instinctively produces such when we allow it to touch us in ways we routinely deny and ignore.

Then we ask ourselves, “What am I doing this for?” Though rhetorical, this question is also rewarding because it forces us to fix our gaze beyond the ways we devise to achieve our goals and the privileges we hope to gain when we succeed. Thus, some people pursue religion for answers; others pursue pleasure instead, seeking to silence the interrogations that inspired Kierkegaard’s dread.

Even so, we want to know about our end, when it will end. Some of us may even want to know how and where it will end. To deny this inquiry as natural is to make detachment inevitable. How can we rightly relate to others when we are indifferent to ourselves about what matters most? In fact the quality of our lives is determined by the degree to which we have embraced our mortality.

Unfortunately, some people become ruthless and aimless in response. Others become ambitious and obsessed. Yet no goal or gain can censor mortality whether or not we respond. The time will come when we will be disarmed and must answer or perhaps ask, as did the Psalmist, “O’ Lord, help me to understand my mortality and the brevity of my live! Let me realize how quickly it will end.” (39:4)

Unlike many of us, William Shakespeare refused to ignore or deny the sovereignty of mortality. In fact he confessed, perhaps as an antidote, “I have immortal longings in me.” Maybe Shakespeare’s willingness to confront his mortality immortalized his writings. Maybe that’s why he was able to embed creatively what he couldn’t embody existentially. Maybe our work would be more enduring if we weren’t in denial about our mortality. Maybe we could increase our force if it were rightly faced.

Aptly embraced, legacies and legends result, depending upon our influence. But even if we never achieve this status, our lives will be more authentic because we confronted our mortality. Maybe facing it would make us more cheerful and charitable also. If we understood just how quickly our lives do end, no matter how long we live, maybe we would be the difference that makes the difference in the lives of others before nature pulls the covers.

 

CLOSE...

 

Things get easier as we keep aiming towards our goals. It may not seem like it because we aren't always as clear as we imagine on what these are. We generally have more ideas than we do exacts. Ideas get us started but exacts keep us going (and committed). They also enable us to accelerate our pace, and to recognize our place when we reach it.

Consider, for example, driving to a destination, maybe even somewhere you've been before but you aren't exactly sure of where it is. You have a general idea instead, enough to convince you to get in your car and drive. After a while you find yourself in the vicinity but not at your destiny (destination).

Thus, you may feel anxious or excited or even annoyed because you know you are close. You even have a strong idea of where you are but you aren’t where you want to be. Hence the importance of clarity, whether in driving cars or pursuing goals. Here we see clearly the difference between exacts and ideas. Our success is routinely determined by our degree of clarity regarding our goals and dreams. Without clarity we occupy the vicinity but don't reach the destiny we desire.

Today, so many people are vexed by vagueness and victims of the indefinite. They lack the ability to say clearly what they want. Of course this doesn’t mean that they can’t succeed because they can. In fact, sometimes in being too precise we miss opportunities when they emerge because we lack the urge to pursue them, especially if they contradict our conceptions.

Generally, however, clarity is a prerequisite for success. We must be able to express clearly what we desire deeply. In this regard, failure to achieve is often a failure of clarity. Clarity is the ability to express clearly our goals without being clouded or constrained by contingencies. If we can’t express this to ourselves, we will have trouble expressing it to others also, which will hinder their ability to help us.

That’s why it’s important to take time to ask ourselves, “What am I really after; what are my true goals.” Answering this anchors us in our pursuits. It also increases our confidence and changes how others experience us. Clarity enables us to be decisive and assertive rather than tentative and timid. Consider again how we drive when we aren’t sure of where we are or where we are going. In these instances, having an idea isn’t the same as having an exact, practically or emotionally.

Clarity, however, isn’t something we get once and for all. On the contrary, it accrues over time as we take time to assess where we are and what we want. Otherwise we will get in the vicinity without reaching our destiny as we desire.

 

 

 

WHAT ARE YOU COMMITTED TO?

    What are you committed to? When all is said and assessed, what desire has possessed you so that you are willing to go to the end to realize it? Do you have such a passion? Do you dream such  dreams? If not, why not? What would you do if you truly believed in you the way you say? Would you be living the same life as you are today? If so, that’s okay. Still, it’s good for us to ask ourselves, what are we committed to. In doing so, we maintain our priorities rather than adopting those imposed from the outside. More importantly, we renew our strength and resolve to invent ways to achieve our goals, whether personal or professional. So, as you go about your day today, take time to ask yourself, “What am I committed to.” In answering this you take risks consistent with your aspirations, which is the prerequisite for living a life of greatness! Enjoy: http://youtu.be/sI7kabeZqzY

3 STEPS TO LIVING A LIFE OF GREATNESS

     All of us are fascinated by greatness whatever its form, sports, entertainment and even gardening! We love to see people doing ordinary things in extraordinary ways. We feel likewise when seeing extraordinary things being done in extraordinary ways. Something about the sight stirs our senses and provokes remembrances of when we entertained visions of our own greatness.  The good news is that you still have time to design a life of greatness if you are willing. You might not be able to achieve that NBA dream but you can do something that will pique your passion so that you can stop rehashing what might have been.

     The first step to living a life of greatness is to simply DECIDE that this is what you are going to do. Simple as it sounds, many people haven’t decided to live a life of greatness. They talk about it and are enamored by it but they never decide to commit to its pursuit. Characteristically, they are great fans but poorly focused when it comes to their dreams. The problem, however, isn’t a lack of focus but rather indecision. Once you decide, focus comes; plans form and magic follows provided you stay committed. Do it now and you will see how things change.

     The second step to living a life of greatness is DESIGN. You have to design what greatness looks like for you, not what someone else designs for you. Design is the art of greatness which, by the way, is just as important as the science. The great thing about design is that it’s so liberating. In fact design allows you to reflect (and promote) your quirks and your competencies –your unique lifestyle-- which becomes a life-statement of who you are. So, it’s okay to collect ideas, just as you would when furnishing a house or accessorizing your home.  But ultimately you must decide what your design will include, no matter how eccentric. Ignore naysayers because everything is impossible until it's done!

The final step to living a life of greatness is to DARE. You must dare to believe that your dreams of greatness are not only possible but that you are responsible for their fulfillment. This doesn’t mean that you have to stress but you should strive daily for success. Daring, moreover, shouldn’t be draining but charming instead because you never know what will happen as you go forward. That’s what makes life exciting! That’s what makes greatness fascinating. That’s why each of us pauses whenever greatness appears from some unlikely place. These achievers, DECIDED, DESIGNED and DARED to live a life of greatness. You can too; decide today to commit your way to living a life of greatness.

 

BE PASSIONATELY PATIENT AS YOU ARE MAKING IT HAPPENI

WHO

                       

                          Vanity promises to do for others what it can't possibly do for its self.

          Where are you going? More important, who's leading you? Each of us is following something or someone, which will ultimately determine our end. That's why it's important to ask, "Where are we going and who's leading us." If we don't know the guide or the guidelines, how can we trust the guidance?   (10/26/98, Work, Why? Diary of a Dreamer)

WHAT KIND OF AMERICA?

    

     I loathe the nostalgic appeals to a mythic America that only served the interests of elites whether democrat or republican. I repulse the perspective that says anything to get elected, erasing history in route while forging a route toward an ideal that will repeal democratic safeguards and human rights. I marvel at the people who fear the evil of President Obama (or Governor Mitt Romney) because they believe that we need to “take our country back.” From whom and to where, that’s what I wonder when I hear voices thunder from political platforms around the nation. President Obama was elected through democratic standards and republican process. The same can’t be said about the previous administration’s last term. Even so, what kind of America indicts all republicans as morally depraved because of the wave of insidious slander coming from a few loose cannons? What kind of America are we creating because of our political leanings?

     That's what I ask with each insult that insists only one party cares for and is capable of leading America. That's why I find it troubling when citizens aren’t bubbling over the insolence that has defiled President Obama’s reign and previous campaign, whether through outbursts by an angry Congressman or via a retort by a party cohort --Bill Clinton’s comment. In referencing President Obama, President Clinton blurted, “Just think, a hundred years ago he would have been getting us coffee.” Where is the outrage about these remarks and similar reminders, which suggests some people think that America only belongs to one kind or class of people? Where is the outrage over Michelle Obama recently being depicted as a slave on the cover of a French magazine? I’ve experienced more disgust over a bad call at a sporting event than I have over these neo-American politics, the sentiments of which we inevitably export.

     What kind of America (and American) gives a consensual silence to the growing practice of linguistic violence, which no other Administration has faced, because of its fears and misguided loyalty to a party? Why have alternative parties when we have the same kind of willfully blind people perched therein? We need new people more than we do new parties as far as I’m concerned. But it all depends upon what we have learned from history, whether contemporary or ancient. That’s why I strive to tread lightly because I want to pledge rightly my allegiance. Maybe that’s also why I’m neither democrat nor republican, libertarian or independent.  I reject any wholesale allegiance that requires me to abandon my duty to reason. Else my support merely supplants those principles we claim to hallow. What kind of America would this yield –one that is admittedly shallow.

LIMBO

Today there is much that remains in limbo, namely, where do we go from here. These concerns cause downturns in times of uncertainty and anxiety in times of incredulity, when we can’t believe the enormity of the challenges we face. Yet it is then that we must be brave and embrace with confidence what causes dissonance in our lives. Else we will seek to connive what should be confronted forthrightly however frightened we may be. Yet so many people consider themselves unequal to the threats they face and thus turn their face the other way. Characteristically, they lack the courage to be and the self-esteem indicative of maturity and the willingness to assume responsibility. They surrender to inevitability instead, as if what is is irreversible. In doing so, they exalt fate and double the weight they unwisely carry because they are wary of themselves.

THE URGE TO REGULATE

The urge to regulate represents a diversion of democracy and usurpation of the autonomy entrusted to citizens by reason and sanctioned by law. Thus “red-tape” has become the red-herring enabling governments to galvanize their efforts to prevent the emergence of truly free markets by manufacturing amorphous mechanisms that suppress the growth of cottage industries (and contrary ideas), which would ultimately enhance our ability to build a genuinely liberal and liberating society. If, however, this society sees itself as complete, then it is compelled to create oppressive protocols that stifle citizen’s efforts to implement their unique ideas.

This claim neither denies the need nor denounces the value of regulation as a means of managing public safety (e.g. Borders' attempts to retail his barbecue). However, it does substantiate his sentiment and sustain his argument that the regulatory state is effectually and efficiently becoming a new form of totalitarianism wherein only certain avenues are open to certain people with access to powers and persons that grant permits and permission for them to pursue their projects unimpeded.

Borders, however, launches a logical fallacy in his fertile comparison of over-regulation with applying for welfare, which is an equally arduous process. I also reject his reductionism, saying that, “In the end, all I wanted was to sell barbecue sauce.” In this regard, the relationship between ends and means are malleable. One feeds the other and informs both because of their bond. We just have to be Spartan to limit special interests from suppressing our pursuits which, unfortunately Borders wasn’t.

Characteristically, democracy and capitalism are constructed on contradictory, ambiguous and occasionally conflicting concepts supported by prescriptions and tempered by provisions designed for quality control. Concern with over-regulation, however, as expressed by Borders can become a form of “paper terrorism” whereby citizens are subverted by processes that require conformity to regulations multiplied beyond reason and without regard for commonsense. Perhaps a concept co-opted from philosophy might diminish the dominion of these mandates, namely, a revised version of Occam’s Razor, which would prevent “regulations from being multiplied unnecessarily in efforts to protect public interests.”

If this principle prevailed, the ability of special interests to suppress the emergence of entrepreneurial ventures by their vulturous actions would erode significantly. More important, such an approach would impugn the intellectual parochialism that imperils the progress of democracy, domestically and internationally. In this progressive climate oppressive provisions would cease to prevail, and yield rather to the rule of reason and the right of persons to pursue their peculiar projects in a climate of least resistance. Such a change, however, would require revision in the contemporary demeanor of American democracy, which routinely lets itself be bullied by global events that ultimately hinder citizen’s ability to exercise greater degrees of self-determination because of being deterred unjustly and illegitimately. Moreover, our allegiance to the logic of a flattened world seems to require inflexible systems that suppress rather than serve social interests and citizen needs, threatening freedom in the process.



References

Paper terrorism is the use of false liens, frivolous lawsuits, bogus letters of credit, and other legal documents lacking sound factual basis as a method of harassment, especially against government officials.[1] It is popular among some anti-government groups and those associated with the redemption movement. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_terrorism)