I DID IT

I finished the book by Alan Alda, Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself. And it was wonderful!

I really felt a connection to this book. I guess the fact that it has come into my life when it did. I spend so much time working on myself and my kids, thinking, is it making a difference? I know it is, and I know with my personality, I have to do it. So the next thing I have to do, is share what I learned with you, and anyone who will listen.

Just a note, I have heard many of these things said before. I have thought many of these things before, too. I like that he put them together in a book for the world to see and if people listen, we will be in a better place before we know it.

The first thing he wrote that made me pick up my pen was, Are you living a life of meaning? (Sorry to be redundant of the earlier post) It just spoke to me. Was I? I am trying to, it feels like it, but when I lay my head down at night I feel like I could have done so much more. But how?

He has sooo many good points. These are some of the highlights that I wrote down. I hope it gets you thinking like it did me. If you have time, read the book, let me know what you think. He quotes Edmund Burke. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." So I can't do "nothing" after reading this book, so, here it is in a nutshell.

Your life will have meaning, when you give meaning to it.

Find out what your values are and then learn to live by them

Serve a higher purpose than yourself. This will give you fulfillment.

Love your work. If you put your heart into it, you can't loose. And no one can take that away from you.

Keep laughing, and if you can, get others to join you in laughter.

Be fair with others.

Be strong and aggressive and tough and resilient and full of feeling.

Be bold, move with all of yourself, be brave.

Say what you mean and mean what you say.

It is better to be wise that smart.

It is possible to be absent without ever leaving home.

If you are bored, you're not paying attention.

There are people who truly care if I learn.

Get very lucky (in work and love) and if that doesn't work out, have a back up. Be nimble.

Think things through. No matter what the ideology is, get the facts. Don't just rely on your beliefs. Everything is more complex than it first seems, and being passionate doesn't make you right.

You have to learn the thing that counts; the thing that will get you through the dark hours of the night when the gray wolf of doubt, the prince of fear, comes and sits on your chest and, smiling whispers to you, "Hello friend. I'm going to eat you, but you won't feel a thing because I eat from the inside out."

Think clearly and for yourself; learn to use language to express those thoughts. Love somebody with all your heart....and with EVERYONE, whether you love them or not, find out how you can be helpful.

He does finish the book with the answer to what he thinks is the meaning to life, and it is so simple.

The meaning to life is life.

Not noticing life is what's meaningless, right down to the last second.