Quote of the Week...from Max Ehrmann

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.  Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.          ---Max Ehrmann

Max Ehrmann was an American businessman who penned the 1927 prose poem Desiderata, a guide to living that was popularized in 1972 as a hit single by Les Crane and is the most quoted piece on this blog, full of wisdom.  The above quote, also from Desiderata, focuses me on my own humble little life with its various triumphs and setbacks.  If I compare myself with others of a more competitive nature than I will be playing their game and not pursuing things in the way that I believe they should be approached.  Be it the pursuit of hierarchical career advancement, public lauding, amassing great wealth, athletic or academic success, adventuresome travel experiences, or achieving perceived widespread popularity, each of these areas carry with it the temptation to be made into an idol...although success in them, either in the view of others or by my own standards, is not necessarily something to be looked down upon.  It's important to make goals and plans and to strive against the resistance of day-to-day living, with all of its distractions and trials, to achieve them...this makes life more meaningful and keeps me stronger, positive and proactive instead of weak, negative and reactive.  As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Whatever your life's work is, do it well".  It's not so much innate talent and exceptional accomplishment that go into it, but an attitude of self-discipline and personal dignity...and an attitude that says that here is a job and I will perform it to attain a quality result.  I've found that looking "sideways" at what other people are doing is an exercise in futility. Whether in the workplace or while working on a personal endeavor, others have their own approaches and motivations, not all of them honorable or in accordance with my own orientation: no, I'll stick with my own standards and follow it all through to the end...