Let Your Life Speak

Since this is the season of graduations, I thought it would be fun to share a few insights I have stumbled upon over the last 18 years of working with college students. Because I was too busy working on a book report this spring to accept any of the many invitations to deliver a commencement address, I decided to write one anyway. Congratulations to the Class of 2011.
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I challenge you to show up to your life and be open to possibilities. Say yes to invitations, activities, and opportunities. Show up! If invited to participate in an activity, event, dinner, film, or something out of the ordinary that you may be hesitant to do---I say: "Go for it." Try something new, say yes, and show up.

"Eighty percent of success is showing up.” ~Woody Allen

I encourage you to ask questions of yourself without feeling the pressure of having to come up with immediate, concrete answers. Taking time to consider the questions themselves will give you space and freedom to reflect on what is possible and to imagine creative ways to address the many questions that will be posed to you throughout your life. As many have reminded me, there are not a lot of easy answers in life, but there are a lot of great questions.

"Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer." ~Rilke

Say Thank You. Sounds simple enough, but these 2 words may be the most under-utilized words in our society.

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. ~Meister Eckhart

Take risks.

There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction. ~John F. Kennedy

Laugh. Young children laugh around 300+ times a day. As adults, that decreases to less than 10 times daily. See the humor in life and laugh with others. This is different than laughing at the expense of others of course. Laughter increases endorphins and is good for you!

"You grow up the day you have your first real laugh at yourself."~Ethel Barrymore

Find joy in the present moment. I have a simple time management philosophy: you make time for what is important to you. You can't buy time, save time, stock pile time—you must live in the present moment. Worrying about the past and fearing the future distracts us from the present. We miss out on the here and now because we are living in the past or hurrying to get to the future.

“What we do in love and kindness is all that we will ever leave behind.” ~Carrie Newcomer

Give back and don't underestimate your ability to contribute and make a difference. Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something. We all make a difference. It just depends what kind of difference you want to make.

"We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences we often cannot foresee." ~Marian Wright Edelman

Define success not extrinsically but intrinsically. Pay attention to what makes you tick, what inspires you, and what brings you joy.

"The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance, but live right in it, under its roof." ~Barbara Kingsolver

Be yourself. Parker Palmer recounts the Hasidic tale that powerfully illustrates the importance of being one’s self:

Rabbi Zusya, when he was an old man said, “In the coming world, they will not ask me ‘Why were you not Moses?’ They will ask me: ‘Why were you not Zusya?’”

Leave people and places better than when you found them!

“What you leave behind isn't what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others." ~Pericles

Go and do good…and let your life speak!