“Find a need and fill it.” Ruth Stafford Peale. The world is changing. Aha – The world has been changing for four and a half billion years. The one thing that is changing more now is the speed of change. Technology has over recent years dramatically increased the speed of change in the world. Some of these changes can be interpreted as positive while others, in my opinion, can be seen as negative. Now don’t go off and get yourself into a rampage. I am not against technology I am only against stuff that harms humans; potential, growth, relationships, and inner peace and contentment. When Ruth said this, it was before you owned your first cell phone and maybe even your first computer. If asked today what she meant by this quote it might be different but I don’t think it would have been. Humans for thousands of years have always had needs and will always have them but how we define them or demonstrate them might vary or be very different. Every business that has succeeded during the past few hundred years in the US has done so because it responded to a need, anticipated a need, or created the desire for a need in some way. Just look around you right now – you are surrounded by stuff that hasn’t always been here and people survived without it. So, what’s still waiting in the future to be created or invented to satisfy a need . . stay tuned.
“Few people know how to be old.” La Rochefoucauld. I have shared a few of my thoughts on this topic over the years but since we are in the early stage of another new year I thought I would see if I can add anything that might get you to take a serious look at this simple yet relentless topic – aging. A couple of quick statistics and my intent is not to be morbid. The average death age in the US is currently seventy-eight. Two and a half million people die every year on average in the US and this number is increasing. Seven out of ten people will need assisted living care in their lifetime. Had enough – cause I can get even more negative. So, my point is – living (however you choose to define it) is not about age but attitudes. Everywhere in the world I go I see old folks acting like young people and young people acting like oldies. After many years of observation, that was my reason for writing one of my recent books, “My Age Is None of My Business”. I borrowed that quote from Mark Twain. If you are reasonably healthy and I don’t care if you are losing your hair, your hearing, or your ability to run a marathon, letting a number define how you live; laugh, feel joy, learn, share, enjoy, is stupid. I can’t kike the way I used to be able to, but I can still get into the wilderness and enjoy the sights and sounds of nature. Let me ask you – regardless of your age – you are young, old or somewhere in between – is age defining how you think & behave?
“We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.” Dag Hammarskjold. I don’t care how rich you are, smart you are, famous you are, or wise you are, the future is a blank slate. Yes, having some or all of the previous might help you better define what your blank slate might look like but I will guarantee, and I’m not a fortune teller, that some aspect of your future life will show up as unexpected, unwanted, uncertain or undeserved. How do I know this – because it’s simple – we can control everything we do, say, believe, feel and desire but we can’t control how life responds, reacts, or demonstrates its plan and outcome. So, laugh, live, enjoy, plan, hope, dream, and – whatever – but accept what shows up.