Backwards lives
I stumbled across this fantastic quote this morning:
Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what want so that they will be happier.
The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what you really want.
So said one Margaret Young, a Jazz Age singer who performed in clubs, Vaudeville, and recorded records all the way back in the 1920’s.
It may be a cheesy quote that falls under the heading of “telling you what you already know to be true,” but it struck me today nonetheless.
The older I get the deeper these kind of things hit me. When I was 15 I would have said "duh!". Now I’m 30 and I sort of nod my head "yeah". When I’m 60 I expect I’ll break down blubbering in a fit of nostalgia at the mention of some trite motivational phrase.