Monday, October 18, 2010

On a Mission

Remember when everyone was writing mission statements? Craig worked for Hallmark Cards at the time and committees were formed to write the silly things. I was serving on a PTA board and the group debated for weeks over the piece of fluff. No one could proceed without a mission statement! (I'm laughing.) I have a necklace that says What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's all about?, but I think this quote by Mark Twain says it all.

Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.



dream in color

of places near

and places far

sail away

rise above

discover who you are.



6 comments:

Kay said...

I like your idea of a mission statement. It brought up a memory of a meeting I attended about ten years ago during one of the Navy's periodic time wasting reinvention phases. I've forgotten what the group's purpose was, but we were supposed to come up with a mission statement. One of the executives proposed a simple, elegant statement that completely covered the matter, but then the nitpicking started. That was before I had a cell phone, so I had to pretend my calculator was a phone and that I was getting an urgent call to come back to deal with some crisis at the office. It was either that or start banging my head on the table.

Kay

Life's a Beach! said...

Kay, that's funny! In my case, I was the recording secretary, so I had to sit there and try to stay awake. I dreamed about scribbling down all the petty bickering and gossip that took place in the meetings and putting it in the minutes! That would have been fun!

Jane said...

My statement: At the beginning of the most exciting journey of my life, I took Mark Twain's advice seriously. And oh my, did the nitpickers cause a lot of trouble! But it was still so worth it.

Life's a Beach! said...

Ah yes Jane. The nitpickers. I'm still dealing with that. Thought I'd escaped it years ago when we moved to a more urban area, but it recently came back to haunt us. People hold themselves back with their own fears, and then they get jealous when other people don't toe their little line. I recommend taking a left on Fuckett Road and putting the pedal to the metal. In fact, I think that would make an excellent mission statement!

Unknown said...

Such beautiful photos. And in a way, your captions are a mission statement, aren't they? Life is an adventure. That's a mission in itself.

Life's a Beach! said...

Laurie, you are so right! Life IS an adventure, so seize it while you can!