Passion Party #194 - A Digital World

Imagine a world
where you don't use paper anymore
Where your shopping list
and your phone book
and your writing pad
are all synchronized together on digital devices.
Where, while you are shopping
your wife or partner can be going through the pantry at home
and can add items to her phone that
automatically update on your shopping list in the store.

Where, when you wake up in the morning,
all the news you need is already sorted and available
for you on your HDTV monitor
and at lunch your phone can find you
the best $5.00 burrito within walking distance
of wherever you are in cities across America

And when you get home after work
your HDTV system has already downloaded all the TV shows that interest you from the previous night,
with all the commercials perfectly edited out.

I saw this world
during the last four days
with my 26 year-old son Ben, in Portland, OR.

Passion Party #193 - the G H P

If happiness lies at the intersection
of creativity and achievement
then perhaps we should add new questions to our census form:
Do you feel like your life is creative?
How many days a year do you have a sense of achievement?

How happy are you?
Instead of measuring the GDP
Gross Domestic Product

perhaps we should be measuring the GHP
(Gross Happiness Product)
How much happiness can you produce today
for yourself and others?

Passion Party #192 - Happiness Is Transitory

When one asks, "What do you want from life?"
many people will say, "I just want to be happy".
But happiness is transitory
it is just an emotion on the spectrum
from depressed to ecstatic.
Happiness will come and go,
like the clouds in the sky.

I see happiness not as a goal, but as a byproduct of a life worth living.

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Happiness is like a cat.
If you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you. It will never come.
But if you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing up against your legs and jumping into your lap."
-William Bennett

Passion Party #191 - I Am Not My Job

A generation or two ago life was simpler.
You got a job with benefits
You worked your ass off for most of your life.
Then you retire
too old to do much of anything.

For many people
their job was their life.

Things are different now
the average person has two careers - or more - during a lifetime
and many people have multiple careers simultaneously.

I am not my job
I am not the money I earn
The money is a tool
The job is a tool
to help me create a life worth living.

Passion Party #190 - My Life Is Rich

Life is hard sometimes.
There are days when it feels like there is so much to do,
it is impossible to get it all done.
And then you get a flat tire
or a speeding ticket
or a runny nose
or the notice from the dentist that
its time for a teeth cleaning.

At times like this I remember that
God doesn't give me more than I can handle;
it will get done
maybe not exactly as I planned

I can be thankful that I am busy
and remember my old mantra:
My life is rich
My life is full
Another day of Opportunity and Potential.

Passion Party #189 - The Mountain

Climbing the mountain
begins with a thought
"I can do this"
and then a single step
starts me on my way.
The action
puts the thought to rest
and then once I am halfway through the journey
I have no choice but to continue.
Sending a rescue party
or a helicopter is not an option.

Whether it is putting $100 a month into savings
or producing a music album
or building a business
or mastering an instrument
or wining a gold medal in the Olympics
or hiking the Pacific Crest Trail

it all begins with a thought
"I can do this"
and then a single step.

Passion Party #188 - My Wish

My wish for you
is that when you turn 90
you can look back and say,
"All in all,
things have turned out pretty good."