Sunday, June 13, 2010

Choose to Live




Decide to Live
It's amazing how life often sends messages to you
when you need it. All you have to do is listen and be aware.
This morning I turned the television on and
channel surfed, which
I rarely do.
I came across the show Sunday Morning.
Ben Stein was giving recent graduates advice.
I'm going to paraprhase some of what he said, if
you would like to listen to full speech
go to
Ben asked his "shrink"
how he would divide up
people who are happy from those who are not.
His shrink said people who are unhappy often
took the safe route. They chose the career path
their parents or family wanted them to take.
Later in life,
they find it is too late to follow
their heart. They haven't built up the
experience or the contacts in the field they
wanted to to choose,
but didn't.
I'm sure you guessed many of these
people wanted to be writers or performers.
I believe
it is never too late to at least
dabble in these fields part time.
I started writing when I turned forty.
The people who are
happy
are the ones
who made the decsion
to live.
They dcided to follow their
heart.
They took risks.
They took chances.
They may have lived life on the edge,
but now they can say
they lived a life
worth living.
Ben admits, you need to earn your keep.
So please don't go out and quit your day job.
But...
if you want to be a writer, then write.
If you want to be a performer then perform.
Do what your heart
tells you to do to be
happy.
Don't end up being one of those people sitting
in the shrink's office complaining because you
never followed your heart.
You never dared
to dream.
Make your life worth living!
"Decide to Live!"

2 comments:

Donna Caubarreaux said...

I love Ben Stine. When I turned eighteen my college professor asked me two questions when he found out it was my birthday.

The first one was, "What do you want out of life."

I answered quickly. "To be happy."

Then he asked, "How do you expect to accomplish that?"

I answered, "I don't know." But in reality, I did. Six months later my boyfriend arrived back from the far east where he was stationed and we decided to get married. We also set out a 'life plan'. We didn't include how many children, lifestyle, etc. But we did have a plan, and we accomplished more than we could ever believe.

So, make a plan, and follow your heart. Be able to adapt if life throws rocks in your path. Your dreams can come true.

Anonymous said...

Amen. :)