"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success in unexpected and uncommon hours."
Yeah, it's one of several of his that I like. I'm a fan. At lunch today, while listening to NPR, I heard a few bits of an interview with Robert Sullivan, author of a new book on Mr. Thoreau. He commented that in Thoreau's time, the word "career" didn't exist. One didn't build a "career" in those days, they built a "life."
So while revisiting this quote, I realized that I read it as "career" in place of "life/dreams," (as in, in my own life, my career = my dreams) which is sad, and sucks, and wasn't what Thoreau intended. Therefore:
1. As Mr. Sullivan suggests, I too shall try to avoid using the word "career" and focusing on building one, but instead on building a life.
and
2. In that context, I still love this quote the mostest, and will be applying it in a new way to my own endeavors. Yay!
Considering the current state of the economy and, for you magazine folk, the media industry, I think we should all focus on this. That is all.
Pretty picture:
4 comments:
Very well put - Thoreau and you both ;)
well said :)
Yesterday I had a witty response to your entry, but alas, my computer did a weird thing, and it didn't quite make it through. Either way, love the quote, and love your new outlook; I believe you are now hitting the nail on the head. :)
I love that. Thank you for sharing the quote - I needed to read that today :)
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