So, we went for a walk today around a nearby lake. It’s amazing how very much I can enjoy the simplest thing with my son. We talked and relaxed as we walked in the rain. We had no deadlines, no time pressure… I want more of those.
As I think about my priorities and goals for 2015, I want to be less “in a hurry”. These past few days have been unusually relaxing. I can’t remember the last time we took 3 days and had literally nowhere to specific to be. I read a quote from Brendon Burchard, "The greatest luxury is an unhurried mind."
I love that as a goal... an "unhurried" mind.
I’ve been reading, reflecting, enjoying these past days. And, it has been wonderful.
I am going through a reading binge…
Billy Joel’s Biography (trying to read on the iPad).
The Innovators (a highly recommended book that my wife gave me)
Behind the Beautiful Forevers (a book my oldest gave me for X-mas)
An Idiot’s Guide to Buddhism (a book a friend gave me yesterday)
And, I am trying to reread “Essentialism”.
I don’t know why – but I feel this huge appetite to escape into a few books and use that to help me rethink, reset and recharge.
As we walk around the lake and talk about our goals for 2015, the questions in my head keep coming.
What is my ART? ( A question that I can’t escape since watching the Neil Gaiman commencement speech).
Does anybody care about my ART? Do they need to?
What are my goals for 2015?
Did I make enough progress in 2014? In some moments, I acknowledge that it was the most productive personal and professional year of my life. In other moments, I question whether I am completely off track and drinking my own kool-aid.
I keep bouncing between the two.
Am I being too selfish in my goals?
Not selfish enough?
Yesterday in talking to my Buddhist friend he told me that the to achieve the “second” level of spirituality, you need to give up all cravings. Wow – I am not sure I can ever leave this first level.
I love the opportunity to reflect, recharge and reset, but there is a danger that you can overthink your life.
I know that I want to work on my health. I want to be stronger and in better shape than ever.
I know that I want to spend more time with my family. I want to be home for more dinners.
I know that I want to be around friends more. Enjoying more moments and sharing the journey more frequently.
I am always looking for balance. I don’t want to keep exploring harmony as a one way conversation, nor as a “mindset”… I want to focus on the application of harmony, and make it into a two way conversation.
I want to focus on DELIBERATELY applying harmony to my life – and part of me wants to increase the speed of it (and the other half thinks about the quote from Gandhi that says, “the purpose of life is not to increase its speed”.
I know that I am talking in circles, and its in part because I am thinking in circles.
What is my art?
I am inspired by the Billy Joel’s of the world, those people so committed to their art that they devote their entire lives to it.
I don’t want my art to be the sharing of a mindset of harmony. I want my art to be the creation of more harmonious lives.
And, I struggle with how to strike that balance.
I know that I love to write. I know that my writing needs to get more specific and succinct.
I am so very excited about the possibility of a clearer set of goals and achieving the “next level” of clarity for 2015. And, I am concerned that I am spinning my wheels in place, overly concerned with a philosophy that is seen by so many as redundant and an unnecessary level of granularity for how to do things.
Is my art supposed to be something other than “harmony” and its application in life and business?
Is harmony simply a “means to an end” and not the end in itself?
Who knows…
I know that I got home from our walk… happy and relaxed.
And, my mind filled with… disharmony…
Wishing that I hadn’t eaten as much as I have in the past few days.
Wishing that I understood the answers to these questions better.
Wishing that there were more days before this year ended to resolve these unknowns.
Wishing that I didn’t have to work this week – so that I really could focus on getting clearer and clearer.
Wishing that the boys spent less time ‘on screen’.
Wondering how I will make time to do all the things that I want to do in 2015.
And, when I opened my computer, I saw a friend had posted this article…
“Results from the Grant Study by Harvard on “What is happiness?” They had studied hundreds of men since 1938 and had come to a few very clear conclusions.
The biggest of which was that they felt like they could summarize the entire study in 5 words. Based on 75 years of observation...
“Happiness is LOVE. Full Stop.”
hmmm....
Maybe happiness is indeed simply ABOUT the walk in the park with someone we love, a moment with friends, a moment of joy, and everything else that we do is simply a means to that end.
Maybe harmony is indeed a “means to an end”, as is my desire to build a greater company, and my desire to be healthier…
It’s all about sharing ourselves to FEEL LOVE, to GIVE LOVE…
I posted a note on facebook on Friday, about interactions with my mother. I thought for a moment, about the post. Does it have a purpose? Does it say much? Will people relate to it?
I truly posted it with hesitation that people would see it as superfluous and irrelevant.
The number of people that commented on it and liked it was overwhelming.
It was a note about a moment of sharing LOVE with my ailing mother. And, everyone seemed to acknowledge it, engage with it, and respond to it.
I love Brendon Burchard’s tagline… LIVE. LOVE. MATTER.
Maybe it is all that simple.
Maybe all I need to do as I think about 2015 is just to LIVE and LOVE and everything else will fall into place.
I know its not automatic or that simple… but maybe its a lot simpler than I am making it.
Maybe harmony is just the way that I have learned to love.
And, sharing it is just my way of trying to learn how to love better.
I can’t imagine a more precious moment than a walk in the park with my son, talking about life, laughing together, dreaming together… feeling his love and giving him mine.
The goal is not for MORE PRECIOUS moments (in terms of how special they are)… the goal for 2015 needs to be MORE precious MOMENTS (in terms of how many I am present for)…
Still figuring it out – and grateful you are questioning it all with me.
Let’s start making this a two way conversation:
Go into the absolutetruth.squarespace.com and comment or send me an email nbenavides@emgcorp.com:
What are your goals for 2015?
Is harmony a goal or a means to an end?
Yours in harmony,
Nestor