ASBA 54th Annual Conference – Driving Yourself without Driving Yourself Crazy

This session was not what I had hoped for, but did give me pause to consider the reasons I do what I do and ponder if they are what makes me happy.

The focus of this session was “ What will it take to make me truly happy?  Mr Riggs, mentioned Lily Tomlin’s thoughts of a rat race, “Even if you win you are still a RAT.”

As a child, we tell ourselves we will be happy when we get the special item we hope for Christmas,

when in high school, we tell ourselves we will be happy when we get the girl of our dreams,

when in college, we tell ourselves we will be happy when we get our dream job.

As an adult, we tell ourselves we will be happy when we find the perfect spouse,

when we are married, we tell ourselves we will be happy when we have children

when we have children, we tell ourselves we will be happy when they grow up and are happy.

As we get older, we tell ourselves we will be happy when are retired.  Exactly when will we be happy?

Happiness is like a Snipe Hunt. We will only be happy when we achieve the impossible?

We can’t drink ourselves happy, any better than you can drink yourself sober.

Few problems are out of balance.  We need to align ourselves the way we align our cars.

Have a Character Value System

            Every violation of my integrity makes me less happy.

            There is no place secure for your mistakes.

Relationships

            Nurture relations with others.

            Be respectful of your time and theirs.

Achievement

Achieve worthy goals

Set weakly goals and work to achieve them

Faith

Have a belief in anything.

Know there is a cause more important than yourself. 

Mr. Riggs told us a religious joke similar to this one:

A couple of nuns who were nursing sisters had gone out to the country to minister to an outpatient.  On the way back they were a few miles from home when they ran out of gas.  They were standing beside their car on the shoulder when a truck approached.  Seeing ladies of the cloth in distress, the driver stopped to offer his help.  The nuns explained they needed some gas.  The driver of the truck said he would gladly drain some from his tank but he didn’t have a bucket or can.  One of the nuns dug out a clean bedpan and asked the driver if he could use it.  He said yes and proceeded to drain a couple of quarts of gas into the pan.  He waved goodbye to the nuns and left.  The nuns were carefully pouring the precious fluid into their gas tank when the highway patrol came by.  The trooper stopped and watched for a minute, then he said: "Sisters, I don’t think it will work, but you sure have faith!"

Another and final joke with a message was:

A golfer sets his tee in the ground very near an ants nest.  His lifted his club to swing and hit the ground, instead of the ball.  After several swings, like this, one ant said to the others, “If we don’t get on the ball we’re going to die”