More on Achievement
I got the following in my email today. I think supports the end of my post yesterday about achievement.

You don't actually have to take the following quiz. Just read the email straight through, and you'll get the point (an awesome one) that it is trying to make!

Take this quiz:

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.

2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.

3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America contest.

4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer prize.

5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.

6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

How did you do? The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.

2. Name three friends who have helped you through a
difficult time.

3. Name five people who have taught you something
worthwhile.

4. Think of a few people who have made you feel
appreciated and special.

5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.

6. Name half a dozen heroes whose stories have inspired you.

Easier?

The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care.

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today.
It's already tomorrow in Australia." - Charles Schultz

Holes
There's a hole in all of us that can't quite be filled. It's that longing I talked about previously. This longing causes humans to search for some purpose or meaning in life. We need to be complete, which implies we know we are incomplete to begin with.

People are very creative in how they try to fill this hole... some call it the search for happiness or contentment.

Most try to fill this hole with achievement. Success at business, sports, school, work, etc. We feel like failures if we don't succeed at our goals and dreams. Most of the time we want to succeed NOW,not even willing to wait or work hard and honestly to achieve a goal. In the American society, money seems to equal achievement or success. We may be good at what we do, but if we don't get paid enough, then we are still failures. Even those who find material success realize at some point that it is not enough.

I once had an enlightening conversation with someone close to me. I asked "What matters in life to you?" This person replied that life is a series of tasks to be completed. Translated that means things to be done, achievement at whatever level you are on. To this person's credit, I think that their actions are consistent with the reply. But I think there is so much more!

Others try to fill this hole with food. Now there actually is a hole in our bodies that needs to be filled with food, but some people try to fill the other hole I am talking about with food, too. Americans eat out of boredom, out of anxiety and stress, and as an escape from boredom or stress. All of which, of course, causes stress on your physical body, carrying around more weight, and giving your something else to be stressed or depressed about.

Many people try to find meaning in life by giving up. They live defeated lives, focusing on the victim that they have become "through no choice of their own." They spend time rationalizing why they are in the state they are. In fact, some try to achieve at failing. Think of those who go on Jerry Springer type shows to show how dysfunctional their lives are. They have decided to not fill the hole at all, to glory in its emptiness.

We can never fully succeed at tasks or at finding happiness... on our own. What happens to a young person who has spent years of school and training only to reach all of his/her dreams by age 30. Then what? After the euphoria wears off, major depression settles in.

Instead of trying to fill this hole within us, we must allow it to be filled. By what... or whom?

To be continued... By Honeycomb

YOU WILL ALWAYS EXIST
You will always exist. Isn't that cool to know?



You are an ever-living, never-dying being. Eternal.
Yes, one day you will die a physical, "flesh and blood" death, but your spirit/soul will never die.

No matter whether you think you are a good person, bad person, angel, devil, or in between, you will live for eternity.



You know you were made for more than just life on this earth. You can feel it in your bones when seeing majestic snow-capped mountains. When you hold a newborn baby. A longing in your gut, for something more.

What about the humble awe you feel when you consider major human achievements like a rocket or space shuttle blasting off into the cloudless sky, leaving a trail of smoke behind it?



Stop for a moment, close your eyes and picture that rocket, right in the moments after take-off...


Then consider a simple seed, on its own type of launchpad, under the ground, waiting for the exact right time of year to start sprouting. How does it know which way is up to the sunlight, and which way is down for the root? Then the stem grows up towards the sky, and the roots grow down like the rocket's plume of smoke. When you stop and consider it, a simple seed is just as amazing as a rocket. More mysterious even, perhaps.




A seed grows to produce a plant and fruit, which will yield yet more seeds, and then repeat the cycle.

However, you know that the human being is made up of much more complex and, yes, mysterious systems and processes than a mere seed. (Although we must admit that a mere seed may grow hundreds of feet tall into a towering redwood tree, or it may grow into a beautiful rose or lily and make your heart ache at the sight of it).



So, if humans are so much more complex, how is it that we just die like a plant at the end of our lives? There is a longing inside each one of us for something more. Why? Because there is something more! Eternity.




To be continued... Honeycomb.




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