I'm not a member of the ASU graduating class of 2009, but tonight President Barack Obama made me feel like I was. Not that I've been resting on my laurels, as he warned about repeatedly throughout the commencement address. On the contrary, since I graduated from ASU in 1994 (Arkansas State, that is), I've been busting my you-know-what building that body of work Obama cautions that none of us can afford to ignore.
Granted, I'm not making my living doing what I love, but I'm loving striving for the dream that will make my living in the future. So many people I know give up on that that -- their dreams I mean; that passion that Obama mentioned numerous times tonight. So many people lose that dream and, in the process, they lose themselves. Beyond that though, they lose an opportunity to contribute to the world in the way the universe intended.
Our interests, our talents are not "asides" in our lives meant to be treated as hobbies or delusions of grandeur. On the contrary, what means the most to us when we're young -- when we're most often asked "what do you want to be when you grow up?" -- the answer that comes from the deepest, most honest place inside ourselves is the reason we are are here on this earth (at least this time around).
Once you're doing what you're meant to be doing, that's when money and "success" will come.
That's not my revelation but something I read in one of Deepak Chopra's books I believe. Though tonight Barack Obama delivered a similar message that in all my 36 years I have never considered before:
"Find someone to be successful for."
Whatever your dream, whatever your talent and however long it's been since you took these gifts seriously, find someone in the world for whom your body of work can inspire theirs.
Click this link to watch and read Obama's ASU commencement address to the graduating class of 2009.
Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/89934978@N00/2578340406
Granted, I'm not making my living doing what I love, but I'm loving striving for the dream that will make my living in the future. So many people I know give up on that that -- their dreams I mean; that passion that Obama mentioned numerous times tonight. So many people lose that dream and, in the process, they lose themselves. Beyond that though, they lose an opportunity to contribute to the world in the way the universe intended.
Our interests, our talents are not "asides" in our lives meant to be treated as hobbies or delusions of grandeur. On the contrary, what means the most to us when we're young -- when we're most often asked "what do you want to be when you grow up?" -- the answer that comes from the deepest, most honest place inside ourselves is the reason we are are here on this earth (at least this time around).
Once you're doing what you're meant to be doing, that's when money and "success" will come.
That's not my revelation but something I read in one of Deepak Chopra's books I believe. Though tonight Barack Obama delivered a similar message that in all my 36 years I have never considered before:
"Find someone to be successful for."
Whatever your dream, whatever your talent and however long it's been since you took these gifts seriously, find someone in the world for whom your body of work can inspire theirs.
Click this link to watch and read Obama's ASU commencement address to the graduating class of 2009.
Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/89934978@N00/2578340406
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