What's the Purpose?

When I started this blog about 9 months ago, the sole purpose of it was to recognize the things in my life that I can accept, and be happy and appreciative about.  In that time, my demeanor has changed dramatically from one of despair to one of contentment, and I have spent many hours crafting posts that highlight the various elements of awesomeness in my life.  I'm definitely still a work in progress, and I doubt that I'll ever completely lose the AHA perspective, but I'm finding that it's becoming more difficult to write in the Moments of AHA mindset, and that some of my posts have just become labored ramblings of randomness.

So what's the purpose of a blog if it loses it's direction?  Not much of anything, really.  I've begun exploring different possibilities... possibilities of many, many aspects of my life.  In all the retrospection and searching I've forced myself to do in the past 12 months, I've come to a few brick walls that I'm not quite sure  how to get around.  But I learned today that brick walls are there to allow us to prove how badly we want something.  I guess I just have to decide what is on the other side of the wall and if I want to get to it that badly.  Or if the brick wall is there to set me in a different direction.

So, my blog.  Moments of AHA- Acceptance, Happiness and Appreciation.  There's always some way to celebrate AHA, but in all seriousness how many more "I have the awesome-est friends on the planet" posts can my readers take?  Unless I start naming names, and you're one of those names, I'm guessing that that particular kind of post is not going to hold people's attention.  Nor does it help anyone.  A subsequent purpose for this blog was to help inspire others and help them learn from my mistakes and life's lessons.  I am not the end-all be-all of Life Coaches (far from it, although I'll admit the idea of Life Coaching has crossed my mind), but I truly believe that we can learn *something* from someone else's experiences, especially if we have similar experiences.  So, I wanted to help people take whatever sadness they are faced with and be able to turn it around.  We all have the ability to react positively to any given situation, however sometimes we just need a little nudge in the right direction.

Today was a nudge for me.  Actually, I think it was more like a shove off the cliff.  I was introduced, via YouTube, to Randy Pausch, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. In September 2006, he was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer and was given 3 to 6 months to live. In September 2007, as part of a Carnegie Mellon lecture series titled "The Last Lecture" he delivered a speech to a packed auditorium of 400 students and faculty which became an international phenomenon.  Get your tissues if you watch it, and I highly recommend watching it.  He died in July 2008 at 47.  He was a regular guy, but he lived every aspect of his life having fun.  He determined his dreams, and he lived them.  He was a one-time extra in a Star Trek movie, he worked with Disney's Imagineering department, he pioneered Virtual Reality research at CMU, he experienced zero gravity.  He was, and is, an inspiration and he is my new hero.

I've heard or read again and again that if you don't like something about your life, change it. Sometimes that's an easy thing to do.  Sometimes it's very difficult.  And more often than not, the outcome of that change will greatly affect others in your life.  The wheels of motion cannot begin without a nudge.  As much as I've discovered about myself, there still remain things that I am unhappy with.  I'm exploring new avenues and ideas that will allow me to change those things.  But this has proven quite difficult because I know many others in my life would be affected, some in good ways, some in not so good ways.  I've struggled with finding what it is I really want to be and what I want to do with my life.  I was not one of those kids who had specific childhood dreams, at least not that I remember.  Randy Pausch targeted his childhood dreams and made them reality.  I suppose it would be just as effective to target my mid-life (or quarter-life if I'm really optimistic) dreams and work toward making them real.

So, full circle- where does this leave my blog?  I love writing and have been told I'm pretty good at it.  I love making others laugh and have been told I'm pretty good at that too.  I love being positive and I really enjoy sharing that outlook with others and helping them through whatever it is they're going through.  I've been told I'm pretty good at that, too, which is both very humbling and motivational.  If you've enjoyed reading some of the things I've written, please share with your friends.  It's great to get feedback from people, and the biggest compliment I could get is meeting new people or having new followers thanks to a suggestion from a friend.  Now that I'm a bit more stable than I was 9 to 12 months ago, there is some revamping that needs to be done.  This is not the end of Moments of AHA.  Any and all support I've gotten and get in the future is greatly, greatly appreciated.  I'm not out to win a Nobel Peace Prize, but I need to take some more aggressive steps forward in my life.  Bear with me, and don't be afraid to let me know how you think I'm doing.  As always, thank you.

With much appreciation and love, Cheers!