What a Year It’s Been!

But HFS, where did it get to already?! Ah well, that is the curse of the increasing number of trips around the sun on this planet, I suppose ...

Last year, I said I was approaching eudaimonia. I think I’m getting there still ... for the most part ... at least with greater reliability than before. Rather than navel-gaze so much this year, I’ll offer some thoughts and observations that I think have helped me accomplish that.

It can be challenging to tell the difference between “what you are” and “what you ain’t”, but usually there’s a voice inside—or maybe it’s more of a feeling for some people—that, if attended to carefully, will guide one to a way of being that is more peaceful and genuine.

Love is love. That’s all it is. Those feelings can lead to the desire for differing actions with those one loves, but it all comes down to just being love. To the degree we try to compartmentalize, analyze, rationalize it, we diminish its wonderful, vital effects.

There isn’t nearly enough love in the world.

Just because a person doesn’t view you as a friend any more doesn’t mean you have to reciprocate.

Challenges, setbacks, and failures are the only real opportunities we get to discover our true mettle. They are gifts not often properly appreciated.

One’s mental state can make more of a difference in succeeding or failing than all the people one knows, the strings one can pull, or the other advantages one might have in the physical world, combined.

Smile more. Open yourself more. If you can’t offer love, try offering tolerance. They can work wonders, even on the toughest individuals.

If you can find or create a moment to celebrate (“one little victory”), there will be more of them, just from that.

Feedforward can be much more valuable than feedback.

Instead of seeing walls, try looking for doors, or windows, or even small cracks in others. Not to invade, but to share ... to find some common ground to build on, rather than piling more stuff between you.

The line between a student and a master is probably much blurrier than I have previously considered.