15 Minutes to Live
You have fifteen minutes to live. Set a timer for fifteen minutes and write the story that has to be written. To whom? About what? What's going to happen to my family? Who is my audience? Why did I sign up for this? I guess I'll just write to myself.
You are a hypocrite and you should have fixed it, you knew what to do and you ignored it. Instead of volunteering you spent your time telling other peopel they needed to volunteer. Instead of caring and providing your knowledge as a service you kept it to yourself and pointed people where to go rather than taking them there yourself. You are a hypocrite. When was your last great success? No, kids don't count. They are fantastic and adorable but "doing the work" in that case was probably quite easy. And enjoyable. When is the last time you led the charge and put in the time to make something great? Sure you had success in high school reaching running goals, but since then what? Doing the minimum, keeping the status quo and avoiding failure have left you with little to no story to tell. Stop blaming people and start working.
Here is your story:
I, Steve Van Dyk, now have 7 minutes to live and this is my story. I'm 30-years old working at a job I enjoy, but it is a job that also comes with uncertainty in the future. Your wife of 7 years is driven, motivated and ready to do great things yet you slow her progress. Your kids are lovely, two and a half and one year old. They have brought me great joy and a few nights of frustration. Despite the good things I have, I am not happy. I want more, but I cannot convince myself that I need to do the work. I need to tithe more, I need to grow in my faith as a Christian, I need to read more, I certainly need to write more, and I need to learn how to have fun again. The epithet that is about to be written could easily read "Here lies Steve, Loving husband, proud father, good worker who always got things done". I'd be unhappy with getting things done. i want to make things great, I want to lead others and help them succeed I want to do amazing work that ships ahead of schedule and makes people happy.
Instead, I have been content with the status quo. I have been content doing the job that is required of me, nothing more or less. I am content pushing a little bit here and there but only until I am uncomfortable. I want the good life but I'm too impatient to wait for it and too distracted to work for it. I am a habitual e-mail checker and for all the effort have very little to show for being prompt in reading it.
The story that you need to tell yourself is that with only fifteen minutes to live you have too many things left undone, or done poorly to write the happy store. So instead of dwelling on it one more second go fix it. You have 20 seconds... oh wait, this is just a writing prompt.
Until tomorrow.
You are a hypocrite and you should have fixed it, you knew what to do and you ignored it. Instead of volunteering you spent your time telling other peopel they needed to volunteer. Instead of caring and providing your knowledge as a service you kept it to yourself and pointed people where to go rather than taking them there yourself. You are a hypocrite. When was your last great success? No, kids don't count. They are fantastic and adorable but "doing the work" in that case was probably quite easy. And enjoyable. When is the last time you led the charge and put in the time to make something great? Sure you had success in high school reaching running goals, but since then what? Doing the minimum, keeping the status quo and avoiding failure have left you with little to no story to tell. Stop blaming people and start working.
Here is your story:
I, Steve Van Dyk, now have 7 minutes to live and this is my story. I'm 30-years old working at a job I enjoy, but it is a job that also comes with uncertainty in the future. Your wife of 7 years is driven, motivated and ready to do great things yet you slow her progress. Your kids are lovely, two and a half and one year old. They have brought me great joy and a few nights of frustration. Despite the good things I have, I am not happy. I want more, but I cannot convince myself that I need to do the work. I need to tithe more, I need to grow in my faith as a Christian, I need to read more, I certainly need to write more, and I need to learn how to have fun again. The epithet that is about to be written could easily read "Here lies Steve, Loving husband, proud father, good worker who always got things done". I'd be unhappy with getting things done. i want to make things great, I want to lead others and help them succeed I want to do amazing work that ships ahead of schedule and makes people happy.
Instead, I have been content with the status quo. I have been content doing the job that is required of me, nothing more or less. I am content pushing a little bit here and there but only until I am uncomfortable. I want the good life but I'm too impatient to wait for it and too distracted to work for it. I am a habitual e-mail checker and for all the effort have very little to show for being prompt in reading it.
The story that you need to tell yourself is that with only fifteen minutes to live you have too many things left undone, or done poorly to write the happy store. So instead of dwelling on it one more second go fix it. You have 20 seconds... oh wait, this is just a writing prompt.
Until tomorrow.