Saturday, June 23, 2007

What keeps me ticking

Ever wonder what makes you tick? Some of the things that keep me going include my friends, Fridays, my thirst for knowledge (especially the nerdy technical kind), great music and so on.

What I've found is that the more you challenge yourself, the more you get to better know yourself. At some point, you must accept your limitations, and when you do, I guess can be considered maturity. However, I've also seen a lot of people get frustrated when they challenge themselves. Kipling hit the nail right on the head in "If", a poem that I not only take to heart, but use almost as a guide to lead my life.

In IF, Kipling states the following:

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

It is so important to be able to let go of something you gave so much to, and start again, from scratch, as he describes in the last two lines of this stanza. I've seen many a great person be able to do this, and many of these so called greats unable to fathom this concept.

Restarting life might not sound like the best idea, especially since life is short, and if you've spent a considerable amount of it working on something, and then have to watch it disappear or destroyed. However, for the very reason of life being short, I believe that it makes more sense to try again, to restart, to stoop and build it up with worn-out tools instead of becoming frustrated, or crying over it for too long.

I didn't mention one of the most inspirational piece of poetry in my list of things that keep me ticking, but if it isn't obvious by now, then here it is once again - IF by Rudyard Kipling is what I go back to when I need some advice.