Time to Think

It was a pretty long question and went something like this:

“OK, so you gave up your career, your job, your income in order to find a life that you are passionate about. Effectively you have made massive changes in your life in order to add what you feel is real value to the world. When you sacrificed all that stuff, you thought you were going to gain a heap of other stuff. Was the sacrifice that you made really a sacrifice and did you gain what you thought you were going to gain from this change in life direction?”

I suppose the shorter version of the question is; did it work out the way you expected and what now?

To add additional fuel to the fire, my wife and I went out to a dinner party last night. The dinner party was heaps of fun but one of the guys I knew introduced me to a guy I did not know in a way that bothered me immensely. He said, this is Mark, who left corporate life to find a better way and is now back at it working harder than ever.

Oops – perhaps the time has come to do more thinking. Have I really made this incredibly difficult decision to give up everything that is regarded as normal, so as to live the life I always wanted to live, only to end up back where I started?

I now have my very own thinking project. Strangely it excites me that eight months down the line I am in a position to re-evaluate my life and my decisions. Do I continue going with the flow or do I make some more changes to ensure that I am able to add the value to the world that I want to add? Am I on a short term diversion with great long term prospects for my value plan or is it just a diversion? Do I still want what I wanted? What has been good and what not? Did I sacrifice anything or did I just ditch the bad stuff in my life? Where to from here?

Time for me to think and grow and plan and change!

Man, life is exciting! Stick with me as I try and answer some of these questions.

What do you spend most of your day talking about? Is it the weather or crime or clothes or idiots on the road? Do you have shallow conversations about just general stuff, you know small talk? Or do you have deep meaningful conversations about general stuff, like love and peace and parenthood and faith?

Does the stuff you talk about make you think? Do you walk away after conversations thinking about how your discussion changed your opinion, your mind, your paradigm? Do you go and do something different as a result of that conversation? Do you have a similar conversation with somebody else as you marvel at your new insights and thoughts?

Does life make sense to you? Is the meaning of your life clear? Are you on the path that you want to be on? Are you happy? Do you want more? Do you want less? Are you fulfilled? Do you share your insights with others? Do you make a difference?

Will you have a conversation today that is deep and challenging? Can you inspire somebody to think? Do you think if we all think more, we may do things differently? And if we do things differently, is it possible that we may get different outcomes? Can you do it?

It is Sunday evening and I have vowed to get my writing back on track. No more Mr Nice guy when it comes to giving up my writing time for everyone else. Sorry dudes! I have a job and it is time to do it. Any boss would have fired me for my tardy work efforts over the last couple of months. And yet as I have blogged so often, I am so busy. Unfortunately even good waves are going to have to wait for me to ride them from here on in!

This afternoon I refreshed my book plan for hopefully the last time. I had rather a nice gap due to the mother in the house getting special treatment and being allowed an afternoon nap. That reminds me, I cooked a very simple scrumptious lamp kleftica replica. My wife who loves lamb gets an annual lamb feast on mothers day. Personally, I cannot stand the stuff! But today it was heavenly!!

Yesterday was interesting. I tried out some portrait shots of the family. I spent almost a whole day last week trying to find some second hand bits and pieces to be able to use my flash off camera. Well Saturday was about making that work for me. I think we ended up with some special family shots. In my bid to try create my own business opportunities, I have agreed to photograph the children at my younger son’s school. Nothing like throwing ones self into something new in order to learn how best to make it happen. I hope that I now have a handle on some pretty nifty studio lighting and that some parents will walk away with some cheap but professional quality pictures of their little munchkins!

Have a wonderful week. Serve with passion and love. Reflect, think, act! Spread some peace. And stay cool!