Work, play, responsibility and aging: Finding the sweet spot
Posted By RichC on January 5, 2019
This “finding the sweet spot” post was started as I was closing my books on 2018 and winding down the year. The New Year’s Day mark was still a couple days away and while contemplating what 2019 
would surprise me with, I wrote down a few goals (and resolution ideas). A few of the thoughts on the list were half-started from previous years and to be truthful undone or never prioritized. A few are difficult to quantitate (subjective) and likely require continued focus … and a few others are just always influx. I suspect this is a yearly ritual for many?
The whole exercise started me thinking about our personal timelines and contemplating work, play and aging — where exactly is life’s sweet spot?
GOAL: “…to be content regardless of my circumstances.” — Philippians 4:11
As humans, we all seek to find “Nirvana,” or as taught in Indian religions, the “state of perfect happiness, harmony and freedom.” Personally, I’m guilty of spending too much time reflecting on the past and looking to the future … and not time focusing on today. Contentment is not a “fixed state of being,” but instead needs us to appreciate “the now.” We can choose to focus on the positives of the moment instead of wasting time dwelling on our shoulda-coulda-woulda shortfalls. Too many of us highlight our mistakes and downplay our successes … or run on the never-ending treadmill of envying others.
That stated, setting goals, working hard and striving to achieve are great and can be motivating … but shouldn’t have anything to do with our personal day to day contentment. Better to see “today” as life’s “sweet spot” instead of dreaming about tomorrow or reminiscing about the past.
I for one am counting my blessings and so thankful we have liberty and freedom in America. In having that, everything else is a bonus. Come to think about it, for those of us living in the U.S. … we have already “found life’s sweet spot,” and it is TODAY.
Liberty and freedom are distinct. As the political theorist Hanna Fenichel Pitkin has observed, liberty implies a system of rules, a ”network of restraint and order,” hence the word’s close association with political life. Freedom has a more general meaning, which ranges from an opposition to slavery to the absence of psychological or personal encumbrances.
– Saved years ago from a New York Times article in 2003
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