We’re past the company holiday party, which always feels to me like rounding a corner into the new year. Since I know I’m leaving the USA in a few years, events like a company holiday party have become more dear to me, something to savor and truly enjoy. And I really get into the moment: enthusiastically filtering around the room to say hi to everyone I know and to introduce myself to all the new faces, remembering that these events will soon carry on here without me, while I walk alone along some chill December shore on Japan’s Izu Peninsula, or beside the Abe River somewhere upstream of Shizuoka. I’ll remember then how I stood in line yesterday with coworkers to give Alejandra a ticket for three yummy lunch tacos, or how we all played a fun and challenging game of bingo, or laughed while watching Juan and others made into delightful snowmen wrapped in toilet paper and wearing a silly black hat and long orange carrot nose, and of course congratulating Angela and Bob who so deservedly won the ugly sweater contest (no one else even had a chance!) and talking with Jim about a bright PM prospect newly joined in the organization. All good stuff, great really—memories to one day feed remembrance of a good and genuine life in California after I’ve left, and when my world is again the deep mountains, the deeper history, the amazing culture and traditions as well as the people and the places which are Japan. In the meantime I’m so glad for my second-chance lifetime in America—a long and beautiful decade here, as well as everyone I’ve met and everything I’ve done; and I promised myself this morning that I will not waste a single day of the time that remains, being resolved to recognize, enjoy and appreciate all that I can find of the good American life which now surrounds me.
The Good Life Meditation is my daily recitation and reminder of personal objectives and principles used in pursuit of a purposeful life in spite of a universe of seeming indifference. Learn more about The Good Life at my website GoingAlone.org or by reading my book Going Alone. And visit our Discord at: https://lnkd.in/gFgfGmY6
OBJECTIVES: 1. Be Always Ready to Die 2. Make Good Use of Time and Resources 3. Develop Good and Sound Life Principles 4. Cultivate Good Emotional Reactions 5. Perform Good Actions 6. Recognize True Limits and Opportunity 7. One Thing Slowly
PRINCIPLES: 1. Principle of War 2. Principle of Reason 3. Homunculus 4. Anchorhold 5. Home of Good and Evil 6. Principle of Purpose 7. Atomic Principle 8. Principle of Nature 9. The Pirate Ride 10. Principle of Maturity 11. Social Principle 12. Public Speaking 13. Temperance 14. Life Will Not Go Well 15. The Horror Show 16. That Which Must Be Borne 17. The Feast of Offal 18. Distraction 19. Agency and The Great Indifference 20. The Best Seat in the House 21. The Restless Man 22. The Path of Wildness 23. The Great Life Adventure 24. The Risk of Avoiding Risk 25. Sin and Damnation 26. Complete Oblivion 27. The Season of Philosophy 28. Bullseye Aim 29. The Uphill Climb 30. Arena and Utility 31. Nothing IS enough 32. The Principle of Fun
My name is Kurt Bell.
You can learn more about The Good Life in my book Going Alone.
Be safe... But not too safe.