I feel that setting goals & achieving them is to practice failure.

Goals set stops signs on your progress through life. You might achieve a goal and then fail to continue. If you set a goal, only to set another one, you are practicing failure to sustain effort over time.

It’s the quality of your journey that’s important, not the stops on the way.

Your life is a story, not an event. Work is a marathon, not a race. Relationships are not constan but changing, enduring and refreshed. If you need to “stop and evaluate your life” then you haven’t realised an important fact of life: change. Everyday your life changes, the world changes, the people around you change. Setting a goal as static, unchanging target doesn’t reflect reality.

That’s why setting & achieving goals is failure. It’s never over. Setting a target implies an end. Setting a new target is hollow and empty. Why win if the race starts again ?

Life, for me, is much more satisfying if you change everyday. I don’t set goals, but I’m constantly chaining where I’m going. And because I never fail to “achieve”, I never fail.

I’m always a success and I’m always winning.

Get Tissues.

Caines Arcade on Vimeo on Vimeo

via Caines Arcade on Vimeo.

Liked this. Odd, but moving. “Creating something from nothing”.

I could weep for an education that would have let me take time for study, learning, creativity and meditation.

Something like 40-50% of people are introverts - being loud and wanting to have meetings doesn’t make you smart, or clever, or right. It just makes you loud and someone who likes to have meetings.

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2. Go to the Wilderness. Have your own revelations. Unplug, get inside your own head.

3. Take a good look at what make you happy - extroverts are that, but that introverts are this.

People are taking the piss out of you everyday…. — Banksy

“People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.

You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.

Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.”

Original Article:

periphery.org. taken from http://www.banksy.co.uk/ and his Book “Cut It Out”.

www.youtube.com/watch

Seems a fitting poem for Boxing Day as the day after Christmas Day. Now that the orgiastic feast of food, gifting and family is done, it’s time to feel a little let down. In this poem, Keats celebrates melancholy and the periods when you energy flags, your soul rests and your mind is looking for the exit.

Personally, I draw strength from this times of turning away from the drive to succeed, pressure to deliver and the race to completion.

Celebrate the sad times, they make the happy times sweeter. That’s what I find this poem says to me.

Ode to Melancholy

Though you should build a bark of dead men’s bones, And rear a phantom gibbet for a mast, Stitch creeds together for a sail, with groans To fill it out, bloodstained and aghast; Although your rudder be a Dragon’s tail, Long sever’d, yet still hard with agony, Your cordage large uprootings from the skull Of bald Medusa; certes you would fail To find the Melancholy, whether she Dreameth in any isle of Lethe dull.

No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist Wolf’s-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine; Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss’d By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine; Make not your rosary of yew-berries, Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl A partner in your sorrow’s mysteries; For shade to shade will come too drowsily, And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.

But when the melancholy fit shall fall Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud, That fosters the droop-headed flowers all, And hides the green hill in an April shroud; Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose, Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave, Or on the wealth of globed peonies; Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows, Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave, And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.

She dwells with Beauty - Beauty that must die; And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh, Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips: Ay, in the very temple of Delight Veil’d Melancholy has her sovran shrine, Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue Can burst Joy’s grape against his palate fine; His soul shall taste the sadness of her might, And be among her cloudy trophies hung.

John Keats - Published 1918.

The CEO is only temporary. Your wife and family will still be there when you change jobs.

And, likely, the boss will leave/move before you can accrue brownie points.

Remember that when working late and add that to the balance decision you make. Your career is a marathon, a constant pace is better than a sprint.

Loved this article about Introverts. I like the idea that Introverts are fully empowered to make different choices from extroverts. But I’m also wondering how much nerd culture is influenced by a dominance on introspectives, whereas less interesting life choices such as sales or management might be influenced by extroversion.

10 Myths About Introverts || CarlKingCreative.com || Los Angeles, CA:

"Myth #4 – Introverts don’t like people.

On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.

Myth #5 – Introverts don’t like to go out in public.

Nonsense. Introverts just don’t like to go out in public FOR AS LONG. They also like to avoid the complications that are involved in public activities. They take in data and experiences very quickly, and as a result, don’t need to be there for long to “get it.” They’re ready to go home, recharge, and process it all. In fact, recharging is absolutely crucial for Introverts.

Myth #6 – Introverts always want to be alone.

Introverts are perfectly comfortable with their own thoughts. They think a lot. They daydream. They like to have problems to work on, puzzles to solve. But they can also get incredibly lonely if they don’t have anyone to share their discoveries with. They crave an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time."

Sitting at my desk with tears welling up in my eyes. A very old song echoing down the hallways of memory from my youth has just hit the iTunes DJ. Ahhhh, sadness, whimsy and golden-hued reminiscence.

I can clearly remember howling this at full voice as I drove down the highway and swore out loud that I would make the most of my life and never look back.

Most important, never look back.

Damn, can’t help looking back.

Things do get to me. The words: “the weight of all these hustlers and their schemes” hit me right in the middle.

And this never made sense until today.

Twenty years now, where’d they go?
Twenty years, I don’t know
I sit and I wonder sometimes
where they’ve gone

Ahhh, the memories.

Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - Like a Rock

Stood there boldly, sweatin’ in the sun
felt like a million, felt like number one
at height of summer, I’d never felt that strong
Like a rock
I was eighteen, didn’t have a care
workin’ for peanuts, not a dime to spare
but I was lean an’ solid everywhere
Like a rock
My hands were steady, my eyes were clear and bright
my walk had purpose, my steps were quick and light
And I held firm, to what I felt was right
Like a rock
Like a rock
I was strong as I could be
like a rock
Nothin’ ever got to me
like a rock
I was somethin’ to see
like a rock
And I stood arrow straight
unencumbered by the weight of all these hustlers and their schemes
[ From : www.elyrics.net/read/b/bo… ]
I stood proud I stood tall high above it all
I still believed in my dream
Twenty years now, where’d they go?
Twenty years, I don’t know
I sit and I wonder sometimes
where they’ve gone
And sometimes late at night, oohhh when I’m bathed in the firelight
the moon comes callin’ a ghostly way, and I recall
I recall

Got an email from an old friend today:

I decided to tone it down and have moved to the country.. not quite semi rural style... 40 acres about 200 kilometres from town.. and growing own veggies etc.. After staring at screens for 30 years, thought it was time for a break..

Yeah, I’m jealous. Bastard. Didn’t have to write me and rub it in.