The New Year is gone. Now, the newness of 2012′s arrival has passed us. What’s more? May has already arrived; if not today, then next month, you’ll glance up from your inbox or TV guide or twitter screen and ask yourself, “shit, where’d the time go?” So is that urgent desire to read more, be more or do more (to paraphrase a quotation from the 1989 film “Dead Poets’ Society”) nagging you?
No doubt, at least twice a year someone or something reminds you that, save for Sir Richard Branson, whose work and passion are one and the same, no one ever said, “I wish I spent more time at the office.” He wrote a memorable book, “Losing My Virginity,” about how he began his career.
Fifteen to twenty-years-ago, (before the Millennial people and their compatriots took reign) the array of news and entertainment daunted us: books, movies, TV programs, newspapers and magazines, and, for the worldly, all of these in myriad languages. Now, we have web 2.0, and distractions abound – exponentially? When you’re ambitious, distractions are enemies.
Two-thirds of 2012 remains. You want to take the time to appreciate life away from work: spend time with good books, memorable movies, fast friends and great love. Are you sure of your priorities, and how much time and energy you want to apportion to those?
Maybe you wonder, “what’s the hurry?” That’s fine; if you’re content to reside in the present moment, deemphasizing a time-conscious mentality and lifestyle, farewell.
If you’re ambitious, maybe you want to catch up on the list of Best Picture winners from the Film Independent Spirit Awards, peruse and commit to a selection from the latest list of banned books, learn a new recipe every month, or spend more time with someone special? Unless you expect to live vicariously through the “Time Enough at Last” episode of “The Twilight Zone,” from 1959, you need to confirm your personal, post-work priorities.
Bottom-Line: before yet another no longer new year ends, you want to venture beyond your daily routine, the work-a-day life complacency.
One of my favorite quotations, “Death tugs at my ear and says ‘live; I am coming’,” which is less aphoristic than most, wins out because it’s pithy. Time passes rapidly. If you’re ambitious, and you don’t manage your energy and strategic priorities with that knowledge, you’ll want to kick yourself, or worse.
