To Live or Not To Live, That Is the Question
Don't worry, this post is NOT about suicide.
This post IS about life and what our lives are or could be.
At this point in our lives, many of us boomers are evaluating our lives and wondering if we are truly living the lives we want to live. Maybe we've been stuck in jobs or careers that were thrilling at first but are now merely the means to pay our bills. We might be so busy that all we do is work. Is that really living?
Many boomers get to their 60s and attempt to finally do what they always really wanted to do.
Fortunately I've been doing mostly what I always wanted to do for most of my adult life, but I would like to cut back the workload. Sadly, the only way that will happen is for me to retire. I'm not there yet, but I can picture it.
My favorite movie line on this topic is spoken by Andy (the Tim Robbins character) to Red (Morgan Freeman's character) in Shawshank Redemption: "I guess it comes down to a simple choice really: get busy living or get busy dying."
So are you busy living? Are you doing what you want to do?
A big surprise for me at this point in my life is that everything takes more time to do that it used to and I seem to have more time commitments than I used to. One reason is my MS, which slows me down a little. Another is that I have a more active social life in the past four years than I did in the previous ten. That's a good thing, but sometimes I just want to sit at home and do nothing. Although sometimes I want to spontaneously take a leisurely stroll through my awesome neighborhood.
All things considered, I am busy living and not busy dying. It seems at times that all I do is work, work, work but some of my young coworkers thing I live a most exciting life and they are jealous.
Returning to the title question, I'd say I live. It is a conscious choice. Sometimes work gets in the way of life, but the key to keep on living is persistence.
My advice to you (and to myself): get busy living.
This post IS about life and what our lives are or could be.
At this point in our lives, many of us boomers are evaluating our lives and wondering if we are truly living the lives we want to live. Maybe we've been stuck in jobs or careers that were thrilling at first but are now merely the means to pay our bills. We might be so busy that all we do is work. Is that really living?
Many boomers get to their 60s and attempt to finally do what they always really wanted to do.
Fortunately I've been doing mostly what I always wanted to do for most of my adult life, but I would like to cut back the workload. Sadly, the only way that will happen is for me to retire. I'm not there yet, but I can picture it.
My favorite movie line on this topic is spoken by Andy (the Tim Robbins character) to Red (Morgan Freeman's character) in Shawshank Redemption: "I guess it comes down to a simple choice really: get busy living or get busy dying."
So are you busy living? Are you doing what you want to do?
A big surprise for me at this point in my life is that everything takes more time to do that it used to and I seem to have more time commitments than I used to. One reason is my MS, which slows me down a little. Another is that I have a more active social life in the past four years than I did in the previous ten. That's a good thing, but sometimes I just want to sit at home and do nothing. Although sometimes I want to spontaneously take a leisurely stroll through my awesome neighborhood.
All things considered, I am busy living and not busy dying. It seems at times that all I do is work, work, work but some of my young coworkers thing I live a most exciting life and they are jealous.
Returning to the title question, I'd say I live. It is a conscious choice. Sometimes work gets in the way of life, but the key to keep on living is persistence.
My advice to you (and to myself): get busy living.
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