Congratulations With Your Birthday

It was fun to get the winning email with my 30th birthday next week. My gift to myself was to lose 30 lbs, which wasn't easy. It was however possible, and I don't know why I didn't discover that until now.

I read somewhere that your twenties are about figuring out what you want, and your thirties about working hard to get it. If I had truly believed in the importance of sustained, focused effort earlier in life I would have disagreed with this. I would have spent less time thinking about the person I would like to be, and more time doing the things that he would do. It doesn't count if it stays inside; see also faith vs. works.


Things I can't resist saying to 25k people:

* I asked the most creative person I know what I should write, and she said to tell people not only are there repercussions for being a douche, but for not being a douche, and to tread carefully.

* If you can get over the quirkiness, mewithoutYou's 2009 album may resonate with you as much as it does with me. It's all crazy, it's all false, it's all a dream, it's alright.

* I just re-read my favorite book, The Broad Highway. At this point I've read it so many times that I don't even know if it's truly a good book, just that my dad shared it with me as a young man so I like it. Best selling fiction book of 1911. Check it out.

* I'd love to hear from you how your culture and language celebrate birthdays. I'm American, but living in Holland I expect to hear a lot of "gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag", literally "congratulations with your birthday". We'll likely be sitting in a circle eating cake and drinking strong coffee.

* What is one thing I should do/see/visit/eat while I'm in Europe?

* What have you accomplished that you didn't think was possible?


John
johnwonthelistserve[AT]gmail.com
The Netherlands / USA

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