Just as a concert orchestra isn’t a race to the last note, life isn’t a race to some exalted state called success.
This is the point of a short talk by Alan Watts, which has been animated by Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park. This unlikely meeting of widely differing talents is an inspiration.
As an Alan Watts fan from way-back-when, it’s always nice to hear his ever-so-sane voice again.
Thanks
Terry
It reminded me of Steve Jobs’s daily question: “If this were the last day of my life, is this how I would be spending it?” If the answer is no too many days in a row, then it’s time to do something else.
I just Stumbled this post, and it turns out I’ve “discovered” you. I wrote this review:
“Alexander Kjerulf calls himself the Chief Happiness Officer. He’s fun to read, so I’m a regular visitor to his site. This particular post is an animated version of a short by Alan Watts, about how life isn’t “a race to some exalted state called success.”
This is a great post! Thanks!
I think there’s a very subtle mistake that can be made here, though:
Of course you should be enjoying what you’re doing, or at least appreciating it for what it is. But I think it’s easy to take that belief, and then use it to demand a lot out of life — from everyone and everything else. In this way, you still demand that “success” (or enlightenment, or delirium, or whatever) — it’s just that you demand it right now :-)
I believe a lot of it is in our mindset; it’s up to us to just slow down and take a look at what we’ve got. Note that this doesn’t mean we must enjoy whatever it is we have; it means we must look at what we have and say, “Is this good? Do I enjoy this?” If the answer is no, then make a plan and move on.
But don’t rush yourself. Once you start observing your situation and your feelings, keep doing it, and one day something will happen, and your intuition will know what to do.
Have strength, and stand up for yourself and your happiness. Trust your intuition above all else, and be hesitant to question it. And allow yourself to make mistakes!
The website linked to in this post is currently giving a “bandwidth exceeded” error. Apparently too many of us are trying to watch the video!
So I checked YouTube… and sure enough, someone has uploaded it:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ERbvKrH-GC4
“Music and Life” is the name they gave to it.
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