As I write this I am thinking of (my husband) David on what would have been his 77th birthday. It's a time of happy thoughts of his amazing life. I think how lucky I was to have spent 39 years with him.
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I've also recently been to a school reunion. It was interesting to see what people had done or hadn't done with their lives. Some were stuck in the past, some carried on gossip conversations, but others talked about interesting events in their lives, and the most interesting talked about ideas and the future. Many had changed lots since that period of time so long ago, while others continued along the same path they started (and some hadn't moved very far).
This started my thinking about what makes a life successful, and reading what others think. This is what I came up with in no particular order.
- a positive attitude and sense of humour
- faith
- a set of goals and hard work towards them (a goal is a dream with a date attached).
- the ability to change direction
On that topic, David had planned to teach at UCLA but when he returned to the US after Vietnam, he was very upset by the treatment of vets. So he headed for Australia to teach high school.
And Steve Jobs said that he looked in the mirror every morning and asked himself, 'If this were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I'm about to do today.' Whenever the answer had been no for too many days, he knew he had to change something.
- good relationships with family and friends
- creation of new mistakes, not just the repetition of old ones
- a job one loves doing and done well
- generosity to those less fortunate
- continual learning
Mahatma Gandhi — 'Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.'
This is just a start, and I would love to hear your thoughts.