Raymond K. Hessel

Make the change before it’s too late

We all have a bucket list (maybe only in our heads– partially complete). A compilation of things we’d like to do, places to travel, and events to experience before we die. Or we have a path we’d like to take that seems too dangerous to go down. I’m not talking about quitting your job to “pursue your passion”. That’s mostly fairy tales. But there is something different we want to do, something that we want to try out. Usually it’s difficult and requires a lot of time and effort, and walking away from something else you’ve spent years building.
When it comes actually deciding when to take that chance, the time we tells ourselves all too often becomes “someday.” But something happens in our lives where it becomes too late to change course. Maybe our brains become hard-wired to our daily routines, maybe our system of values ages and stops allowing ourselves to take lifestyle risks. 
It’s a common thought experiment to wonder what you’d do with your life if you were given a terminal diagnosis or were told you had cancer. What would you do with the remainder of your time? What would you change? At the end of the thought process (most of you) can say, “Well, thank God I don’t have cancer.” Hat-tip to Ryan Holiday

Stillness is the Key

I haven’t read the book yet, but I pre-ordered it and it arrived on my doorstep on Tuesday. I am so excited about this book.

Some background. I found Ryan Holiday on a podcast when he released Ego Is the Enemy. The podcast was simply a sample of him reading a selected chapter, entitled What’s Important to You? It tracks the post-Civil War careers of Ulysses G. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman (known to us as General Sherman). While Grant was swept along into politics, eventually becoming president, he was out of his depth and did not know when to say no or how to be comfortable with himself. He accomplished little in office, and then was caught up in a Ponzi scheme. He finished his days trying to write his memoirs in order to leave something behind for his family.

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