by Darrin Schenck
Share
by Darrin Schenck
Share
I loved the saying, and so I wanted to use this:
“Life can be a beautiful lie, and Death is always a painful truth
that most of us try to ignore.”
I am doing my best to live a life that I can look back on and say, “Wow! that was a Hell of a ride!” The last thing I would ever want to do is live a long life that is full of regret; to find myself sitting in an retirement home, drooling all over myself, mad as I sit and think about all of the things I wish I had done. In fact, if things ended today, I hope that I have lived a life primarily comprised of things most would envy and that I would be proud of.
As I had eluded to before, the car crash I got into a while ago was the impetus for me finally getting into public speaking. Why I needed a “stared death in the face” kind of event to get started, I am not sure. And it took a little while for me to put the pieces of “I’ve been given a second chance” together, but eventually I made sense of things. I have started down the path and am really glad I took the steps necessary to do so. I know I would regret not pursuing this, and I am getting a late start, but a start nonetheless.
It is easy to get caught up in the minutia of the day to day struggles, and let that cloud your mind and your view on life. The questions are easy and the answers are simple: Don’t like your job? Change it. In a bad or just less than ideal relationship? Get out. In these two examples, you wake up every day unhappy, and by doing so are short-changing yourself on a daily basis. But you are also not giving the world the impact of the full value you bring as a person. Whether you are an artist, a writer, a caretaker, or just a good person, all of these contributions to the greater good are muted because you are not living your life to its fullest potential. Think about that for a second….
For me, I am looking to add the public speaking experience as a personal growth vehicle, but also as a way to impact a larger group of people. I can remember listening to other speakers all throughout my life, and being influenced by some of the messages they had to share. I have been afforded the luxury of being in a position of influence as a coach, but my audience is limited to the kids on the team that I interact with on a daily basis. I want a larger reach, more impact, and a bigger circle of influence, so I chose to pursue public speaking. I am hoping that I will better serve the world by doing this, and am excited to see where it leads.
I like to think that everything I do, and everything that happens to me is perfect in and of itself. By that, I mean that the lessons I need to learn, the things I need to fix, all of this comes to fruition in life. Things that seem like a crappy thing to have experienced turn out to be important life lessons, or a critical change in direction. I, of course, have to remind myself of this when certain things happen, as I am just as human as everyone else is. But I try to look at life and the circumstances it offers as way to improve, change, and grow. Not always easy, and I still complain sometimes, but I am getting better about it with more practice.
As the picture for this blog reminds us, Life is fleeting, and Death waits for us all. I don’t see that as a bad thing, or something to gloss over until it is front and center. I use that knowledge to get things done, to motivate me to do things I may not wish to do. I want to be cognizant of the fact that this ride does end, and I like everyone else hope to live to be 100 and fully functional right up until the end. But you never know…
Get started Living, because Death will be coming for you, as well as the rest of us…
-
This one is tough to swallow, but you need to understand something…life is not fair. That is a universal truth that we all learn too late in life. Some of us are born into abject […]
I am beginning to really like British Author George Mack, and this quote is an excellent example of how he sees the world. I love his insightful and slightly askew look at the world. For […]
-
I got a reminder that life isn’t meant to follow the script we all write out in advance. This is a blog about resiliency… I am an ambitious person; I need to be busy and […]
-
I thought this was an interesting way to remind you that the perspectives, beliefs and habits you have are the sum total of your life experiences so far. It is easy to think that most […]