What will my 30s be about?
I'm turning 30 in less than a month and that has got me contemplating about life and where I want to take it over the next decade.
I've always had a pretty clear vision of what I wanted to do with my life, what made me happy and how I could get there.
My 20's have been about becoming independent -- not just from my parents, but from the over the shoulder boss, from the demands of society to get a job, find a wife, raise a family and stage it all in a house in the burbs behind a white picket fence.
I've rejected that concept entirely: I designed a professional life for myself around the creative activities that I enjoy and found a way to monetize it all the while leaving free time and flexibility to continually improve myself, to get to know the world and my knowledge of its culture, history, current events, sciences, politics... to spend time with my friends and family and to leave my mark -- and that turned out to be the key to happiness... at least my specific flavour of happiness: do what you enjoy and leave a legacy while you're still alive to appreciate the satisfaction of looking back at it.
My friend Kim, who's also turning 30 brought to my attention that it's a custom to make resolutions when entering your "Dirty Thirty's" so I gave it a little thought and wrote back...
I've always been an ambitious person and one to achieve the goals most important to me. I think my resolution is going to be to continue to really live life by fulfilling my goals but doing so with a laser beam focus, with a bigger sense of urgency. I'm getting my pilot's license over the next several months and that'll allow my 30s to be about travelling the world even more prolifically and living each day as an adventure. Photographing the people I meet, writing their stories. It'll also allow me to fill my second resolution described below.
We think we're all grown up being in our late 20's. I'm recognizing that there is still so much to learn, so many things to discover about one's self. This past month, I discovered a brand new feeling, one I had never experienced before. I discovered altruism. I truly experienced the joy of helping somebody without any expectation whatsoever of retribution or personal gain, even going as far as to put myself at a loss just to help this person succeed. I found myself caring for the well being of somebody that I had just met and I did so without hesitation, without regard for myself. If I had to sacrifice something of myself for this person, I would... and I did. And surprise: it felt incredibly satisfying.
I look forward to expanding on that so that my second resolution will be to help others up when they're down, to bring awareness to situations where I can make a difference with people who are down on their luck, who need help, who's life can and should be redeemed and fixed.
Some people anguish in the idea of moving out of their 20's. I look forward with a child like giddiness to my 30's. October 29 can't come soon enough.
I've always had a pretty clear vision of what I wanted to do with my life, what made me happy and how I could get there.
My 20's have been about becoming independent -- not just from my parents, but from the over the shoulder boss, from the demands of society to get a job, find a wife, raise a family and stage it all in a house in the burbs behind a white picket fence.
I've rejected that concept entirely: I designed a professional life for myself around the creative activities that I enjoy and found a way to monetize it all the while leaving free time and flexibility to continually improve myself, to get to know the world and my knowledge of its culture, history, current events, sciences, politics... to spend time with my friends and family and to leave my mark -- and that turned out to be the key to happiness... at least my specific flavour of happiness: do what you enjoy and leave a legacy while you're still alive to appreciate the satisfaction of looking back at it.
My friend Kim, who's also turning 30 brought to my attention that it's a custom to make resolutions when entering your "Dirty Thirty's" so I gave it a little thought and wrote back...
I've always been an ambitious person and one to achieve the goals most important to me. I think my resolution is going to be to continue to really live life by fulfilling my goals but doing so with a laser beam focus, with a bigger sense of urgency. I'm getting my pilot's license over the next several months and that'll allow my 30s to be about travelling the world even more prolifically and living each day as an adventure. Photographing the people I meet, writing their stories. It'll also allow me to fill my second resolution described below.
We think we're all grown up being in our late 20's. I'm recognizing that there is still so much to learn, so many things to discover about one's self. This past month, I discovered a brand new feeling, one I had never experienced before. I discovered altruism. I truly experienced the joy of helping somebody without any expectation whatsoever of retribution or personal gain, even going as far as to put myself at a loss just to help this person succeed. I found myself caring for the well being of somebody that I had just met and I did so without hesitation, without regard for myself. If I had to sacrifice something of myself for this person, I would... and I did. And surprise: it felt incredibly satisfying.
I look forward to expanding on that so that my second resolution will be to help others up when they're down, to bring awareness to situations where I can make a difference with people who are down on their luck, who need help, who's life can and should be redeemed and fixed.
Some people anguish in the idea of moving out of their 20's. I look forward with a child like giddiness to my 30's. October 29 can't come soon enough.
posted by iPedro at 11:26 PM
1 Comments:
In terms of a legacy or mark what would like to leave behind.
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