Laughing

*I swiped this post from a previous blog I started. It seems fitting right now. I'll elaborate in the future, but suffice to say, yesterday afternoon was challenging. I'm my own worst critic and worst enemy sometimes, and I just need to remember that it doesn't have to be like that.*

At myself. If I can't, who can? I took a step back when I got home last night and looked at the last week of my life. And all I could do was laugh. Laugh at how wonderfully ridiculous I can be, at how many wonderful things and people are in my life that I don't recognize sometimes. Laughing at something as silly and insignificant as a Post-It note and how integral they are to my life. I laugh at how oblivious I can be. I laugh at where my priorities lie. I really laugh at how clumsy I am.

As I sit here reflecting on the direction my life has taken, and the places I've been, I realize how ridiculous it is when I complain when something less than ideal happens. I've been extremely fortunate in my lifetime. I have a pretty amazing lifestyle. Granted, I've worked extremely hard for it. I travel to amazing places, I attend fabulous events, the food I consume is nothing short of incredible and I dress well. I drive a shitty car, but that's because cars are stupid (I've put less than 20K miles on it in 3 years). I'm able to save for retirement and still live comfortably.

Next time I complain about a situation that doesn't turn out how I want it to, or about a bad day at work, please refer me to this post, and tell me to put it into perspective. Tell me how utterly ridiculous I sound. Because there are a lot of people out there that have it a lot worse than I do. I'm extremely optimistic about my future and I'm going to stop taking things and people for granted. I'm going to continue to live with passion and I'm going to focus on living with purpose.

Someone I admire very much is Randy Pausch. If you haven't seen "The Last Lecture" run, do not walk, do not pass go and do not collect $200, to watch this video. This man was absolutely incredible. His passion for life and appreciation are to be admired and cherished. Sadly Randy passed away a couple of years ago, but the lessons he shared stayed. This is one of my favorite quotes from the speech...

"Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people."

- Randy Pausch ( 1960-2008 )

This one is the full speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

This is the short Oprah version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IjVl8xzCSk