Important things

[janestarz]

An entry on tarlia's other blog made me think about something. She wrote about an article in Marie Claire Malaysia:

An article called’ Global Energy’ by Tan Lee Kuen talked about what six women from around the world do to stay healthy and preserve their well-being. One of the women is a nutritional therapist Alia Almoayed from Bahrain, who said something that stuck with me although I only glanced through the article at the time.

On the topic of exercise, the yoga enthusiast said:

“I’ve noticed over time that as life got more hectic with work, kids and duties, exercise was always the first thing to be dropped out of the daily schedule. So I decided to work my life around my yoga routine.”

From: Georgettetan.com

Lotsa people run around, arranging their lives around work, because work is important. Can you imagine that? Work isn't all that important! Because basically, if you thought work was so damned important, wouldn't people actually do it? There's people slacking off, doing half work, pushing deadlines, clearing off from work early, trying to get out from under their workload or having other people do it for them. You'd think that if work was really important, we'd all do our best to make the best of it.

What is important to you? Health? Family? Love? The environment? Money?
And if that's so important to us, then why don't we try out hardest to make the best of it?

I'm reading a book that's not so well-written but does give me an intriguing look into nineteenth-century Japan. Where people shoulder their responsibilities, because it's just not done to do anything else. I don't plead for a rigid society with a million rules, but I would like to see people try their hardest to be the best at what they do. To take pride in their work and their accomplishments and their beliefs.

So pick something that's important to you. Something you will want to live for, something that you want to shape your life around. And work to make it work. Feel the pride of a successful day to fuel the next day. Hold on to that thing that is important for you. Because that is what matters in life. And not all of those things other people tell you you need, because that's all just paper butterflies.

Comments

[kenshinichinyo.livejournal.com]

Basically, I agree with you. For some people, there is a real problem, however.
Because somehow, this society has chosen to reward some things by money, and others not. There are, for instance, a lot of people doing work as a volunteer (work which they absolutely love!), but they get paid nothing - but still, the rent has to be paid. And so, many people just have a job for the money, and nothing else; their hearts belong to activities and work that are not paid...