Livin’ is easy

This piece by Shane Nickerson caught my eye this morning (h/t Boing Boing), a sort of mid-life review of lessons learned. Nickerson is 42. Believe me, he’ll learn even more by the time he’s my age (same as Vanna White!).

What I really connect with here is his understanding — achieved at just about the right time in life — that there isn’t as much time as we think. If you’re saddled with dreams, as most of us are to one degree or another, you have to bear down and get ‘er done in the here and now. Like Lennon said, “Tomorrow never knows.” And Lenin: “Sometimes history needs a push.”

Here are Shane’s Eleven, un-analyzed:

1.   Play like you practice.
2.   Trust your instinct.
3.   Let your dreams change.
4.   Open your eyes to the right person.
5.   Stop comparing your life to others.
6.   Go where life blows you.
7.   Measure your failures as cautiously as you measure your successes.
8.   Stop expecting stuff.
9.   Be direct with people.
10. If you find the sweet spot, everything falls into place.
11. Be nice to the people who like you.

Aren’t they elegant? And relatively easy, once you get over a few hurdles like your obese ego and some weird sense of destiny (caused in my case by The Sword In The Stone and one parent with delusions of grandeur).

In fact, once I accidentally discovered that I am deep-down a Stoic, all of these things — and more — became duhs.

Maybe there’s one more that I’d add, to make an even dozen: Choose the simplest option you can, when you have choices. Happiness and simplicity are pretty good seatmates.