Tag Archives: put in the effort

To covet, or not to covet. That is the dilemma.

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I remember the word ‘covet’ securely fastening itself in my brain after I watched The Silence Of The Lambs.  I had always admired the word as part of the English language, but never truly gave it the power it so richly deserved.  For only having a mere five letters, the word yields much more of an impact than meets the eye.  With the pun intended in that last sentence, I began to realize how it easy it could be to covet something that was so far removed from my reality, yet so much of a presence in my daily thoughts.  I could always see what it was that I wanted.

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Signs and portents of the things we covet will surely present themselves in a myriad of ways, and those glowing neon reminders will only serve to keep that item at the forefront of our brains.  Though we may not have access to the object of our attention on a daily basis, it nonetheless plants a small seed in our brain that sprouts and grows every time we give it a moment of thought.  That lingering speculation permeates the moments of our day and the spark of what could be fuels the evolution of our fascination.

By giving ourselves permission to covet, we allow ourselves the opportunity to keep our desires alive, to live with passion.  And maybe if those dreams never come to fruition we were privately allowed the right to give that fantasy a breath of life, if only for a few fleeting moments.  There is no legitimate way of telling our heart it was wrong.  It will beat the way it wants to beat and we are powerless to its incessant drumming.

I am intimidated by the fear of not following my desires, of never having opened the door to possibility, and thus never being able to define what is truly important to me.  Coveting those things, identifying the wants that truly envelop me but knowing they may be the things that I can never have, affects my world on a scale beyond my comprehension.  But those impervious wants, those things I covet,  allow me to begin to sketch the blueprints of what it is that I truly desire.  They satiate my thirsts, they begin to quench my desire.

To covet is to wish – to wish is to dream – and to dream is to live.

You’re a map of a place maybe someday I’ll go

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The caution beacon flashes.  It warns me that the lane may close ahead, yet I feel compelled to keep driving in the direction I’m headed.  The pavement is smooth and somewhat welcoming, but, regardless, I shift gears to slow my trajectory.  The road winds in a multitude of twists and turns, and even with the subtle warnings,  I can’t turn back.  The excitement of what potentially lies ahead is enticing.

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The spirits of what could be sit on my shoulders and continue to whisper sweet somethings in my ear, urging me to go forward and see what lies beyond.  If only the road I was travelling was not so treacherous.  If only those hair-pin turns would straighten for just a moment so I could gauge what lays ahead, but the exhilaration of the unknown is like a drug.  Perhaps it warps my sense of reality and, just perhaps, it wants me to be excited by the unknown.  It wants me to feel exhilarated by the element of danger.

I feel the pull to press down on the accelerator.  My engine revs and I shift gears to make the ride smoother.  My car rockets forward, almost on auto-pilot, seeking the true ride that it feels is its destiny.  I follow that road, taking the blind corners and skilfully maneuvering the obstacles that inevitably fall into my path.

This road may be fraught with uncertainty, but I am obliged to see where this artery of excitement will take me.  The beat of its life echoes with mine and I am a casualty to the incessant drumming in my veins.  The caution signs no longer have meaning and I fall victim to the thrill of the ride.

I keep driving and as my trek continues the sun begins its journey to meet with the horizon and the cascade of hues is breathtaking.  The warm glow of the dying fire in the sky reaches my skin and I am awash in the embers of the end of the day.  The stars begin to mottle the night sky and the promise of another day lies in wait.

For now, I will enjoy the journey I am following on the advise of my inner compass.  If the road ends, at least I can say I truly enjoyed the scenery along the way.

The sense of entitlement

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I have never been one to define myself by a generation, but the more time I spend just existing in each day, the more I realize how profoundly different my perspective is on what this world owes me compared to the twenty-somethings of this new generation.

When I was in my twenties, and even now, I never, for one moment, thought the world owed me anything.  It was up to me to put in the work to earn my place in this revolving earth and prove to everyone that I deserved my spot here.   And I have continued my journey in that paragon of reality.  But so many of the generation of today feel a sense of entitlement and hope to gain the greatest amount of accolades with the least amount of effort.  They seem to expect everything for nothing.

The thought process plagues me, and I spend countless hours wondering where this ideology began.  Where did they acquire this sense of entitlement?  How is it they can feel so exempt from basic human nature as to not strive for achievement and the resounding sense of accomplishment that follows without putting in the work?  They have become a generation of people willing to rest on the laurels of others and take the credit for the blood, sweat and tears that they have not emitted.  They live in the pampered dog world, and not the dog eat dog world, and it makes me fear for their longevity in the authenticity of being a member of the human race.

A sense of attainment is based on hard work.  You get back what you put forth.   That dog eat dog world promotes the attitude of “survival of the fittest” and those who are deemed fit are those who actually compete.  If you are sitting on the sidelines and simply relishing in the victory of the team without playing , you are winning by default.

Participate in the outcome of your own journey.  You can only blame other people so long for your supposed limitations before you are forced to subject yourself to a heaping dose of introspection.  Your only limit in life is the amount in which you are willing to engage in your own life and strive for success.   Life isn’t easy, but that was never in the handbook.

Hey twenty-somethings – reality is calling….it wants you to join us.