As a young man approaching middle age, I often ask myself what it is that human beings truly seek. Material wealth and comfort appear on the surface to shape the thoughts and dictate the actions of many, but scratch a little deeper and you will find that the common goal of man is happiness and …
Tag: happiness
Talkin’ ’bout a revolution, wherever you go…
Just as the printing press transformed religion and the Western world in the mid-1400s, the internet is catalyzing massive changes in virtually every sphere of human activity. Medicine, science, politics, education, the arts and many other major cultural institutions are adjusting so quickly to the internet's democratizing influence that the heads of the old guard …
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First Flight
Peering through the ski goggles that kept my eyes from the sting of sub-zero air, I looked down through my feet at the frozen ground, which now stood 2,500 feet below me. It was my first flight in an ultralight, in fact, my first flight in a small aircraft. I somehow had convinced my parents …
What makes life worthwhile?
What makes life worthwhile? What matters to you? What counts in your life? In this fascinating TED2010 talk, Chip Conley, CEO, author and founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, makes a persuasive case for the reconsideration of the metrics used to guide our companies and our nation. At what point do we get off of …
If today was your last day…
A friend of mine sent this link yesterday and I thought you would enjoy the message: What if today was your last day? Did you give it your all? Did you help everyone you could? Did you live up to your highest expectation of others? It is so easy to slide into a state of …
Smile! (You are getting old)
A recently published Gallup poll of 340,000 people between the ages of 18 and 85 indicates that the happiness waxes, wanes then waxes again in the life cycle of the average American. Late teens note a high sense of satisfaction with life as do people over the age of fifty. What happens in between is …
Our Planet is a Curious Place: Change, Grudges and Forgiveness
Our planet is a curious place. Filled with a remarkable array of both animate and inanimate objects, its surface and all that dwell thereupon morph from moment to moment. Never were there two moments exactly the same in history. A snapshot taken today of the earth in its fulness would be hardly recognizable if shown …
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Pride, Passion and Happiness: The Disappearing Artisan
Look at the world you center. Do you take great pride in it? Do you sweep the sidewalk at the storefront of your life daily, at daybreak? Do you polish the doorlatch to your home and straighten the welcome mat for friends and enemies? Do you feel you have the opportunity, nay the responsibility to aim to be the very best [enter your job title here] that ever walked the earth? If so, kudos to you. If not, get to it. (And have a wonderful day.)
Dirty Jobs: The Love of Work
The last few decades have been "years of plenty," a time of unprecedented abundance. Memories of scarcity are reserved only to the oldest generations now living and we, as a nation, have grown accustomed to what seems to be limitless abundance. If history teaches us anything, it is that complacency is quick to take root in times of abundance. Our …
Contentment…I wear that crown!
"All things on earth thus change, some up, some down; Content's a kingdom, and I wear that crown." -John Heywood 1497-1580 Ah, contentment. That elusive muse more fleeting than prey in the presence of its hunter! If you've ever felt the warm embrace of contentment, you know of her charms. Contentment can be known in any …
Gregory Hake 