LIFE GOALS: CLIMB THE LADDER, WANDER AROUND, OR BOTH

Life goals bring everything into focus the way the right rug ties a room together.

It starts with a list of things to accomplish by a certain year and an ambitious plan for doing it.

There’s the calendar with each day, week, month, year, with room to pencil in your progress.

And you are progressing, right?

Right?

It’s a Sunday in Oregon, a smokey Sunday with the mountain obscured under an orange sun that looks like a bad eclipse.

Should one look at the sun when it’s filtered through Washington and Canadian wildfire smoke.

If you believe you can get sunburned on a cloudy day, then I’d say no. For extra caution don’t look directly into the sun at any time, unless one of your life goals is going blind.

Do that and you’ll fall off the career ladder if you can even find it.

We see that ladder every time a new sensation lights up the sports world.

“They are unbelievable, Bob, a generational talent with a future crowded with honors and accolades and a Hall of Fame enshrinement for sure.”

Then something happens, an injury, a lifestyle, a mental health problem, and they’re finished before they’re done.

We had a guy in Portland named Bill Walton.

He’s the first who comes to mind who combines all three.

Walton climbed the ladder a few times. He still his.

And he seems to enjoy wandering around too.

Even if you’re not goal oriented, that’s a good combination to aim for, not that you’re an ‘aimer.’

Everyday People Life Goals

Being ‘everyday people’ is a worthy goal.

Do that and you get a theme song.

Click here for a short version.

I am no better and neither are you
We’re all the same, whatever we do
You love me, you hate me
You know me and then
You can’t figure out the bag I’m in

Here’s one bag to be in, the one where you don’t go to town in your house slippers, but you might.

Or the one that keeps moving down the line because that’s what we do.

Or the bag that holds the promises you made to yourself.

Everyday people do plenty of wandering around and still get things done.

And we learn things as we go.

Do I deserve a parade for unplugging the sound system and plugging it back in when it quit?

Maybe.

I moved a cabinet, got a flashlight, took a knee and found the cord in the mess of wires and dust. Unplugged, plugged in, and got the vacuum out.

If there’s an award for not overreacting in a dramatic role, I won it in a supporting role.

I’ll take the show from Venardos Circus as a reward.

My Best Advice Today

Take a good look around your hometown, your new town, or wherever you live.

Whether you own, rent, or squat, be something to the land you occupy.

Those are your feet on your planet during your lifetime.

You, and it’s you who makes it matter where you stand, sit, or lie.

So what to do?

First, believe that you will find a kindred spirt, someone you can bend time and spend time together with; remind yourself of the kindred spirt you share with your partner over the decades once you find them.

It’s not a one-time thing. Love is not a one-time thing that stops after you get married, after you have kids.

Love is opening the bedroom door and finding a made bed and you didn’t make it.

Love is looking in the kitchen and everything is cleared and washed and put away.

And you didn’t do it.

Love is getting up in the middle of the night for the other person, the other people.

Step up for your husband, your wife, but step up for yourself first.

Do step up, but keep your balance. Make life goals of not falling down when others lean on you.

Check your foundation then wander a little.

Try and create balance in your small world before you fix the bigger world a little at a time.

Then get busy.