| Mark Twain said, "Twenty years from now you will be | | | | Efforts are required to keep the physical body fit and |
| more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by | | | | challenges are required to keep the mind fit, sharp and |
| the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail | | | | expanding. Nothing grows in a vacuum. Opposing |
| away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in | | | | forces have to be met, challenged and overcome for |
| your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." | | | | growth to happen and that cannot be found in the |
| The story of evolution is a tale of struggle. That's how | | | | comfort zone. |
| the first living cell that existed some four billion years | | | | Wise men have understood this fundamental truth. |
| ago eventually became man as we know him today. | | | | That is the reason that most of them are still active |
| Struggle is how we came to be and struggle is how | | | | and still meeting challenges way past retirement age. |
| we expand and grow. A lesson that we tend to | | | | The human body does not wear out, it rust out. The |
| forget. | | | | human mind is not weakened through activity, it feeds |
| Years ago, we had no choice. Man had to fight for his | | | | and expand on it. |
| very survival. Things have changed. In today's world it's | | | | Helen Keller said, "Security is mostly a superstition. It |
| relatively easy to find a secure niche and vegetate in | | | | does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as |
| a seemingly secure environment. However vegetating | | | | a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in |
| is not the reason that we placed on Planet Earth. As | | | | the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a |
| part of the Grand Scheme of Things, we were placed | | | | daring adventure or nothing." |
| here to expand and to grow in order to contribute to | | | | She is right. Nothing is certain and security does not |
| the continuum of life. | | | | really exist but there is a way of maximizing our |
| The ultimate purpose of life is to extend life and that | | | | chances of being secure and that is by maximizing our |
| can only be done through growth because, in nature, | | | | personal resources. That is done by meeting |
| nothing stands still. There is either growth or stagnation | | | | challenges, overcoming obstacles and slaying dragons. |
| and decay. It's a law of physic and it's a law of nature. | | | | It's done by meeting life heads on, pushing our faculties |
| There is no escaping it. Yet, even though we are | | | | to the limits and in the process, expanding and growing. |
| aware of that fact, the temptation to try circumvent it | | | | We come this way only once and every effort should |
| and maintain the status quo is prevalent. | | | | be made to experience all the flavors that life has to |
| The reason that the status quo seems attractive is | | | | offer. That can only be done by traveling the high |
| that it mirrors the promise of security. It is a common | | | | roads of human endeavors. By becoming all that we |
| belief that the evil that we know is not as bad as the | | | | can be and by achieving all that we are capable off. |
| evil that we don't know. There are at least two things | | | | That's the secret of a fulfilling life. It's the only way that, |
| wrong with that beliefs. First it's a false assumption and | | | | when the final curtain falls, no regrets will be there to |
| second it's a very limiting belief. | | | | haunt us. That precious life that was given us will have |
| Life is sustained and expanded by experiencing life. | | | | been lived to its fullest. |