Friday, August 21, 2009

Birthday and thangs

I am 36 years old...right now, today. I have to embrace it, because it is not going to change whether I want it to or not. I have just returned from a 10 day stint in Costa Rica-beautiful-but here it is 3am and I am up. Cant really sleep...either it is the fact that DC does not feel like Costa Rica, or my birthday has awakened me. The latter seems more realistic-though the District is definitely not a tropical paradise it is home. My age, well, it is all in what you do within the dash right? I am just saying, the story goes that it does not matter what date you are born, nor the one on which you die it is all about the dash-what happened between the time you came in and went out.

I get this way on my birthday, reflective and all. But it is real, I mean this year marks my first b-day as a married man. I feel I have already said that, but it can be stated again today. In that statement however, are some inherent responsibilities. Not simply for me but for my family...though it is just us two at the moment that may change in the near future. I say all this because it is very much time for me to take life...well, seriously. I could have a debate with myself on this, in that I do not think that I have been a joke at this life thing...but, where I want to go and how I will get there is more important to me right now than ever before.

It is not all about the change in my marital status, but an even greater change in me. I want to be happy in my daily life. I want my professional career to be just that, a career and not a job. A job is something you go to, a career is that which you do-different right? That is what I need, and therefore at this point I have to make it happen. I know this all sounds cliche and you may go back to an earlier entry and say, look, you made the same statement last year and where are you? Well, progress has been made this past year, so I could say better off. Also, there is no day when you wake up having made it and the work is then over...the work is never over.

I think that is the mistake that people make, and even I have made in my thinking previously. Like with work and luck one day I would make it-get there-grab hold of the brass ring...and all work would be done. Well, it just is not true. The more you make, either financiallly or simply of yourself, the more work there is to manage it. The CEO does not attain that position and find out that the work is over. No, it has really just begun. I understand that right now. It is clear.

It is for this reason that the work that you do, or at least the work that I do in the near future has to be more than indirectly impactful on the world. I feel I can truly effect positive change, so my work should reflect that. Then it is passion, not finance that drives the energy behind the work. It is a totally different yet very much the same. So I guess, all in all, that is my birthday wish...to focus on the work right now and try not to waver from it, understanding in a short time there will be a payoff for the disciplined approach to life. On this birthday, this new year of life, let me dedicate myself to improvement and fulfillment of the dream. Every dream, I have ever had.

Happy Birthday to me.

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