Friday Quotelets

I have been struggling with giving my blog some modicum of order. Not too much order, since I want to keep my quasi-stream-of-consciousness dialogue going, but just a smidgen of order. So, for now, I have decided to institute "Friday Quotelets", in which I will highlight points taken from a book that I am currently reading. I am a voracious reader and will usually be toggling between 4-5 different books at any given moment, so I will only mention one. One of my current reads is Po Bronson's "What Should I Do With My Life" - it's not an amazing read, but it its full of short stories which make it for good bed time stories. As the title suggests, it’s a book about the everyday struggle of finding meaning in one's life. Here are some passages which resonated for me:


* "People who don't have passions don't struggle."

* "There is no official list of honorable, noble careers. The proof is in the individual's experience. You either find the pleasure of connecting with others in your daily reality or you don't - this nobility is not something that can be assigned or predetermined. Often it defies stereotypes."

* "Who you are is more important than what you do. The goal is to bring what you do in alignment with who you are, so you don't end up being someone you don't want to be."

* "The traditional search for a career begins with the question 'What am I good at?' But that's often not the right starting point for finding a calling. You can get good at what you need to serve what you believe in. You can learn Spanish, you can learn budgets, you can learn to listen. The true search is for what you believe in. When your heart's engaged, the inevitable headaches and daily annoyances become tolerable and don't derail your commitment. Let your brain be your heart's soldier."

* "If you feel you haven't had enough experience, don't burden yourself with the expectation that you should be able to 'know' what's right. Find ways to give yourself a taste. Interests evolve into hobbies or volunteer work which grow into passions. It takes time, more time than anyone imagines. In other words, don't be distracted by those rare birds who always seemed to know that they wanted to do. It's common to envy then, and to assume they have it easy. But they often have the hardest time of all when it doesn't work out."

For what it's worth . . .