Author Archives: Steven

Finding Meaning

11 February 2009

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Gate at front of Old farmhouse by aussie julie "life through a lens" on FlickrIt seems so long ago since I discovered what direction I wanted my life to go.  In reality, it has only been a couple of years but so much has happened in that time.

Before realizing what was important in my life, I had no direction.  I was living day to day with no plan for the future and I was not focusing any energy towards acheiving anything better for myself.  At the time, I didn’t realize that I was wasting my life.  I would find ways of bringing happiness and pleasure into my life, mostly through acquiring material possessions.

The more stuff that I bought, the better I felt, the more successful I thought I was.  The feeling of success wasn’t for having actually accomplished anything with my life, but rather because I had acquired objects that I thought would project the image of success.  In reality I was broke, working at a job that barely made ends meet, but I had my stuff.  Maybe you know the feeling.

I wanted to project an image, but eventually I would realize that no one cared.

I understand now that purchasing all of this stuff was only a way for me to fill something that was missing in my life in a material way.   It wasn’t until I realized that an apartment littered with inanimate objects wasn’t making me happy that the accumulation of material possessions was no longer an important part of my life.  I didn’t feel like I had to buy something in order to project an image of success.  As long as in my heart I knew that I was doing everything I could to accomplish my goals, what I owned wasn’t important.

People project the image of success in various ways.  Some use fancy cars, big houses, complex home theatre systems and flat-screen TVs.  If you are one of these people who continually buys things because of the happiness you experience from having that object in your life, look inward and try to focus on what is actually missing in your life.  I’m going to bet that it isn’t that “Jersey Girl” DVD you thought you couldn’t possibly live without.

Find your focus and align your lifestyle in a way that is harmonious with your new vision of life.  Once you have a direction in life it is much easier to get to where you are going.

Guitar Hero Syndrome

6 February 2009

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I love Guitar Hero.Guitar Hero by Jolecavo on Flickr

Without any question it is the best thing to have happened to the world of gaming since Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out hit the market in 1987.

I am still a beginner at Guitar Hero, so I spend most of my time playing on the Medium difficulty level, occassionally bumping it up to Hard. After a while I readjust back to Medium because Hard is just, well…hard!  So I rock out on Medium for the rest of the night, priding myself in my ability to nail almost every note on each song.  I’m a rock star!!!

What I am actually doing in priding myself in mediocrity.  Could I play at a more difficult level?  Sure, but it is a challenge and requires a lot more effort and focus on my part if I want to get any good at it.  When I try to play on hard I find that after a while it is just too much work and is no longer enjoyable.  I see my friends playing in Expert mode and I have to laugh at myself for being so average.  I’m better than some, but I’m also not as good as others.  If only I would take the time to get better and challenge myself a little bit more I too could be playing on Expert.

We do this in our lives everyday.  We pride ourselves in being mediocre.  We don’t challenge ourselves to pursue greater things.  We tell ourselves that it is too hard, or it is impossible.  We fabricate in our minds a million little reasons why we can’t do something.  Either we don’t have the time, money, knowledge, experience, ability and on and on and on…

The reality is that we can do it, we just chose not to do.  We chose not to disrupt our comfortable lives in order to chase after some “silly” dream.  Even though we feel deep down that we may be much happier if we were able to follow that dream and succeed, we never take the actions we need in order to get ourselves on the path towards success.  We play our lives on Medium.

Stop living a mediocre life.  Challenge yourself to follow your dreams.  Accomplishing goals will not always be easy, but as the saying goes, doing the right thing isn’t always easy.

Rock on!

Respecting Culture & Tradition

5 February 2009

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"Mursi Lip Plate Ethiopia" by Eric Lafforgue on FlickrSometimes I like to argue a point with which I don’t necessarily agree in order to facilitate dialogue about a specific subject.  The topic of conversation tonight was female circumcision.  This is a popular practice in many African tribes and it marks the passage into womanhood.  It is considered to be an important part of their culture and ethnic identity.  It is also a highly controversial subject.

In areas where female circumcision is practiced, a person’s place in society is determined by family lineage.  Female circumcision prevents uncertainty about paternity by discouraging intercourse prior to marriage.  In some cultures a family may receive property or money in exchange for their daughter, and her virginity is essential in arranging for marriage.

While I don’t agree with the practice of female circumcision, I do believe that culture and tradition should be respected.  It is simple to say that something is wrong and that it is unacceptable.  It is harder to look at something and instead say, “I don’t understand, but I will not condemn.” 

When we see or hear about something we don’t understand our automatic reaction is to feel that it is wrong.  We make no attempt to try to understand, and that is where we fail.  Had we taken the effort to remain open-minded and try to understand we may not be so quick to judge.

While walking through life it is important to keep an open mind and do our best to be understanding and less judgemental.  What makes us unique is that we are all different.  We all value different things and there isn’t always such a defined “right” or “wrong”.