“Having a why to live for – if you have a why you can overcome any HOW.”
Nietzsche says this and this is one of the main tenets of Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy.
Here’s a funny little story: I was in Zagreb, Croatia about a year and two months ago, maybe mid-August late August 2021 and I was on the phone with my nephew, Kyle.
I was like, “Early retirement, for me, just isn’t gonna work. I’ve hand-washed my clothes, and they’re hanging on the line. I’ve read for an hour and a half, I’ve studied Hvatski – or the Balkan/Croatian language for about an hour and a half, I’ve biked about 3 miles to this café and it’s only 11:30 in the morning. I’m going to become an alcoholic cuz I feel like I want to have a drink.”
No, I didn’t get any alcohol that day, even though and in order amount of locals seem to have our Upon Our Upon Our to sit around drinking one or two coffees, one or two beers, casually wasting ways day in a cafe or a bar in no particular hurry. It was a strange phenomenon I first noticed my first couple of days in Croatia.
That was not sustainable.
And then I found another WHY to focus upon. I logged back on to my Strava App, which is an Exercise App, and I started signing up for the Biking Challenges to have another goal to look forward to. So that’s when I did one of my first 400 kilometer in a month challenge, since leaving Hawai’i two months prior.
Because it’s as Nietzsche says, “If there is a why you can overcome almost any how,” which is obviously why Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy centers upon this Philosophy. You have to have a WHY in order to be fulfilled, in order to have a reason to get up every day and I’ve been fortunate since I was 10 to know I wanted to be a teacher, and I ran away from that for about 15 – 20 years until I finally went back and studied. I was actually teaching long before I had any degrees but I gave up the idea of teaching for a while, but that’s another story. If you have the WHY, if you have something to wake up for every day then it gives your life meaning and that gives your life purpose and that gives your life perspective.
I’m so very blessed that I’ve had professions that I’ve loved doing: Writing and Teaching, Traveling has been a profession and I specifically wanted to stop here where I think this is a famous photog [as we say in the industry] a famous photographer who might need to look up because this is someone who may have started doing -just like these Graffiti Artists – may have started doing photography as a hobby when she were 9 or 12 or 15 and then when she got older she turned that into a profession. And just like I was saying the other day with Sean Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens” – “Keep the End in Mind” and begin – “Be Proactive”. So if you’re proactive and you say, “This is what I want to do. This is what I WILL do and you go and get the mentors and then you do as Ray Bradbury says, you always try to live your life, “The things that you do should be the things that you love and the things that you love should be the things that you do.”
So, very often you find like Cheech Marin, a Comedian and you know he’s most famous for his Cheech and Chong movies. [However,] he’s a real great Artist. You know he has used the money from the silly movies that he made of promoting smoking and getting stoned and he’s been a really decent Comedic Writer and he turned that parlayed that into another whole career of being an Artist who’s highly respected in that field now, as well it has been for 15 – 20 years so it’s not to say that you just need to focus on one thing although the professionals say that’s what you should do…
Professionals often say you should focus upon one thing when you are seeking a career or investing large portions of your time, energy and/or money. When you looking at some of the richest gurus in the world: Warren Buffett, and others they say put all your eggs in one basket; find the one thing that you think is going to be the Mover and Shaker for the next you know half a century and invest all your energy into that one stock or DUE DILIGENCE = [Habits #1, 2, 3 and 4].
Some people think, you know, having a Plan B is planning for failure. I disagree with that; I think many people often are stuck in jobs or stuck in places where they’re doing what they have to do just to pay rent and feed the kids and stuff but they can still paint every few hours a week. They can still get out and do marathons once a month. They can still do the things that they want to do; paint on walls and go for what they really believe in and do things that make them come alive like these people who did all this Artwork.
Some of them, it’s their primary job. This is what they do like Ottograph [ ] whom I met in Amsterdam. Others are in school right now; they’re going to University – they’re studying Law they’re studying Medicine they’re studying Astrophysics [gibberish] and
[Reading wall] – “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” Yes. You. Are.
It’s important to be your Beginning and your Ending. Sean Covey says, “Keep the End in Mind”, that’s his second of his seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens. But he also says, “Be Proactive”, that’s his first step or habit. He also says to always try to set up “Win-Win” situations #4, and #7 “Sharpen the Saw”.
So when I didn’t have motivation, something MORE to live for, a reason or why after just two months of traveling in through a strange and beautiful continent, I had to create another WHY. In doing that, I reintroduced purpose, a reason to get up every day and something to focus upon. In creating another why, I not only focused on healthy habits [Habit #7], necessary sustainable means of transportation, I am continually adhering to my way of living that promotes positive energy, good health, while not increasing my carbon footprint [Habit #4].
I am the Alpha.
I am the Omega.
Do Epic Shiiiiit
filmed in Olhão, Portugal 103022
edited in Providence, R.I. 112422
Do Epic Shit 