Be your best today; be better tomorrow.
“The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no successes; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing achieved.”–Samuel Smiles
Grattitude. What is hard right now is what makes us more formidable tomorrow.
Be your best today; be better tomorrow.
Carpe momento!
“Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.”—Charles Caleb Colton
Liberty and Responsibility. I believe in both of these. I believe that we cannot enjoy one without the other.
Liberty has been on my mind quite a bit lately as watch, what I perceive to be, a nation become increasingly less free. This is not a political post, per se. Indeed, it is more a post of Spiritual well-centeredness. Freedom, after all, is a Spiritual concept. Liberty and responsibility go hand-in-hand with other-centeredness. Perhaps, we have lost sight of this. We are choosing to allow ourselves to be increasingly governed (political, as well as socially), gradually and unwittingly yielding our personal freedoms.
I often come back to the concept of the Commons (per Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons”). Liberty and Responsibility fit with the idea of a Commons. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer individuals are directing how the Commons should be managed and who should be managers. The Commons, however, is not to be managed by an elite few. Rather it is to be shared fairly and equitably by the masses. Liberty and Responsibility.
We cannot be free and still be self-centered. That is not freedom. Politically, that is oligarchy. Socially, that is oppression. Liberty and Responsibility go together because freedom is a Universal. One cannot call oneself “free” and deny another the same rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.
Be your best today; be better tomorrow.
Carpe momento!!
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”—Winston Churchill
I see a lot of pessimism from people this year. Sure, it has been difficult, but difficulties are opportunities for growth. There is a choice: claim it or complain about it. Frankly, I like the former.
Grattitude. Look for what you are learning or can learn. “That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” (Friedrich Nietzsche). It is the basic “overload” principle. Grow.
2020 is certainly an unusual year, but it probably not the worst year in history. (Personally, I prefer to live in the year of COVID-19 rather than the year of the Bubonic Plague, which was actually years.) Yes, we have had a terrible virus (which, frankly, the handling of which has been worse than the virus itself), we have had fires (here in the Northwest), hurricanes (which we have every year), and lots of other weird stuff (it is a Presidential election year), but this is life. We either let it grow us or we let it overcome us. Choice.
I prefer to be the optimist (albeit more of a realist) who sees the “opportunity in every difficulty”. I want to stand at the start of 2021 and look back at how much I have changed—for the better.
Be your best today; be better tomorrow.
Carpe momento!
