Love, Energy, Audacity and Proof.-S. Farber

2008-09-03

Distracted. By What? So What?

I feel sorry for my effectiveness now, because I find I have constantly been dragged away from my priorities. My time was sliced to so many pieces that the whole-day productivity becomes small even though I feel I had done millions of things during the day. Fact: My time has been mismanaged and wasted.

I have the feeling of a curious student selecting books in the National Library. Millions of millions of books are there, and my eyes are atracted to a bunch of books, not just one book. I pick up this one, have a look and move to another and another and another. They are all fantastic and worth reading. A powerful desire rises in my heart to propel me to absorb the contents of the books all at once. I walk around, only finding myself which one should be read first. Pondering to let time fly away.

This can lead to disaster. If I continue to be charmed and read no books or read a little here, a little there, then the only result I can imagine is that I end up reading no complete book and always feel hungry.

I must concentrate on one book at a time and finish it before move to another book, another shelf or another room.

I have one story in my mind now. It's about how a prisoner became a chess master.

When a man was sent to prison, he had nothing to do to kill time. So he begged the ward officer to give him something to read. What he got was a chess book. At first, he didn't want to read it because he had no interest in that stuff. Days passed and the boredom was unbearable. He picked up the book and forced himself to read on. He learned the trick and became to love it. Then he played chess with himself, of course, to kill time. Years later, when he was set free. He played chess and won all the rivals. He became the master.

So, all I can do is to refrain myself from all the distractions and focus on the priorities, complete each item from NO. 1 to No. X. And I must do things that I will do all my life. Then I can be a master.
So, it's all about practice and heart.

History shall not live on in my future life

LIVE OUT YOUR IMAGINATION, NOT YOUR HISTORY.--STEPHEN COVEY.

I have learned that the past is a powerful determinant for one's future. And I have constantly been reminded to learn from the past. Those ideas are quite right, and I firmly believe in that. Mr. Covey, yet, throws a more inspiring light on my thought with his advice. Yes, history influences us, and even shapes us. But the future, in a proper sense, must be different from the history. We must grow out of our history to justify the meaning of our continuing life. If we change little, what's the use of a longer life.
Life is change. Only change can lend life the power to go on.
Besides the need to desert one's own past track, one also needs to desert the conventional tracks used too often by others. Otherwise, the uniqueness of one's existence is obviously unsubstantiated.
I will embrace change and challenge. They are the fuel for an upping life.
Finally, Live a life as Emerson adviced, "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."