Life Of The Party
There was a time when where ever I went people knew me. I thought I was living the good life and I had it made. I had a job that was producing me an abundance of money. I was you might say the life of the party. I was never afraid to spend money on my friends. I could be found out on the town 2, 3, maybe 4 times a week yet I was always at work when I was supposed to. I was often even teased about the fact that I was usually early. I was frequently found in the company of many attractive women, many much younger than I was. I was known for not getting drunk although it was seldom to see me out without a drink in my hand and a cigarette in my mouth. On a much smaller scale, I knew what it was like to be a rock star or movie star. Now as I said this was on a much smaller scale and I am glad because looking back now I have a new respect for the pressures that they endure. I mean I was living the good life as far as I was concerned and it is nothing compared to the level they operate at. But we both have one thing in common. The whole time this was going on, I never even considered once that anything was wrong with this picture.
I can hear you now, wondering how that is possible well there are two camps as far as thinking goes. The first says that I didn’t see anything wrong because there was nothing to see. I was having a good time and therefore everything was ok. The second camp says that the reason I didn’t see anything wrong was because I was too close to the situation and was receiving so much immediate gratification that my subconscious would not even consider that this could be wrong in any way.
Now I don’t know which camp you subscribe to but I am here to tell you this.
THERE WAS SOMETHING VERY WRONG!!!! Now before you start hollering that I am opposed to going out and having a good time let me assure that I am not. What I am opposed to is spending the entirety of your existence without so much as second thought as to what tomorrow will bring. I was riding the party wave and it felt good. Then it happened, the job that was providing me with such an income and I ended up parting ways. All of a sudden the people who were always there didn’t even bother answering my calls or returning a call. If it wasn’t for family and a few true friends, I would have been a bum on the street. It was during this time that I learned some much-needed lessons about delayed gratification. If I had bothered to invest any portion of the money, I was running through like water I wouldn’t be now working for anyone else. I have heard it said all things in moderation , well I don’t know about ALL but I will say that moderation and delayed gratification are two of the most important concepts we can hope to learn in our lives. Both require the one thing that I have yet to meet anyone who had too much of and that is patience. Now the good thing here is that it doesn’t matter when you learn this only that you do. Hint: the younger you learn it the happier your life will be. I waited a while and so have the scars to go with it. You have the opportunity to avoid many of these scars (physical and mental) and achieve the true freedom that can only be achieved after these concepts are learned. If on the other hand you like me have lived a while and have many of these scars know that as I found out “it is never too late” you will just like me have a few more reminders of why you want to learn these concepts and that may even help to encourage you to stick with it when you think it doesn’t matter or that nothing has changed because if you stick with it believe me it will.