“…Do well at Step A and you can proceed to Step B. Do well at B, and proceed to C. As I look back at my life so far, I realize that I was playing by a very narrow set of rules. And if I played by those rules, worked hard, and caught a lucky break or two, I’d be rewarded with plenty of wealth and prestige.
And that worked okay…for a while…until I began to have nagging doubts. “The Path” began to feel just a bit too narrow. I felt that I was always trying to do well in life in order to move to the next step. As a result, I had completely lost the ability to live in the moment or to appreciate success for success’ sake. And failure? Well, that wasn’t even an option. Most insidiously, I began looking at the people in my life only as potential allies (or, gasp, even pawns) in my quest to keep plugging along down The Path…”
~ Steve Roesler, Life Choices. Bitter or Better?
Credits: Stairway by Bobus @ Elinka. Quote Source: allthingsworkplace.com
Live & Learn 
“…had completely lost the ability to live in the moment…” The saddest phrase in the whole piece for me. You keep pushing and pushing to attain that next goal, hit the next rung, and then one morning ya wake up dead. Good reality check here, pal…
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Agree Lori. Right there with you.
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This is resonant with some of what we’ve been talking about lately Lori – yes? Or rather YES!! How success is most healthily defined, holding moments instead of considering them as steps to the next thing. Great post for this morning…
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Absolutely is, Mimi! 🙂
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it is only off the path that we fully experience what is real in life. harken back to dorothy on the yellow brick road.
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Harken back to that. Yes.
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This reminds me of the story in which the student asks the master how long it will take to achieve greatness by working hard (then harder and harder) and each time the master tells him it will take longer and longer. The student is confused and the master tells him “if you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path”. Isn’t this the American way? (sadly?)
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It is Carolann (sadly)
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You can learn a lot from nature. The ideal of bees is to visit the flower in the usual steps resulting in pollination for the flower and nectar for the bee; however, some bees cheat by chewing a hole at the base of the flower and then draining off all the nectar.
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I didn’t know that. Interesting.
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Yes, too many people become blinded by that narrow road to what they believe is success…leaving what is really important in life by the wayside, until it’s too late. If we’re lucky, we wake up, open our eyes, see our loved ones, play with our children, go outside and just look around and really see life. I know you understand what is important…I read it all the time on your blog, and I believe it is one of the great things about the blogging community…that we all do so much to keep each other grounded, to remind each other of what is so important in this life. So much talent here and so much love.
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Agree with every word Carol. Every one.
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brilliant…”I had completely lost the ability to live in the moment or to appreciate success for success’ sake”…I’m liking the messy, chaotic route more and more these days! 🙂
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🙂 Smiling. And I’m working on that Vicki…
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