50 days to go to 50...

I started the count-down at 83 days. Now there are 50 days to go until I turn 50. I am enjoying the experience.

Yesterday I explored what success means, and how I intend to pursue success in three arenas. The arena of being true to myself. The arena of growing to develop my potential. And the arena of caring and sharing with others.

A good friend asked me to continue my blog after this “limited edition” finishes on 23 February. Another friend had finished reading my blog and found it good, and would like some advice once in a while.

I started this blog to help myself on my journey to 50 and beyond. And it’s nice to see connections develop as I journey on. That is actually the theme of my first blog, Dao and Wine, which is an invitation to join me in celebrating life, where Dao is the big picture, beyond words, full of dots… and red Wine helps us see the connections, makes our dots communicate.

Dao and Wine is a bit neglected these days as I focus most attention on this Reborn at 50 blog.

Now that I have described what success means to me, I’m reflecting on the road to get there. Is there such a thing as getting there? Yes and no. I need a clear sense of direction and purpose in all three arenas of success. For some, there could be targets, especially in the second arena of developing potential.

To fulfill any purpose however, I can only take action in the present time, in the now. Thinking a lot about what to do in the future doesn’t get me there. Like the saying goes, a long trip starts with a single step. And as Maxwell said, “success is something that you are right now, not something you vaguely hope one day to be.”

In the days to come, I will work out in more detail what purposes and direction I see for me in my three arenas, and where there are targets. For now, I realize that success is, in Maxwell’s words, “a journey rather than a destination.” I see my journey as an existential experience, lived day to day, every five minutes, every moment.

On the other hand, a journey to accomplish a target needs some planning and preparation. So, like with many important things in life, I find that there are two sides the coin I call journey.

What is important for both, however, is having the right attitude. Three years ago, I put in my first life journey collage to "expect the unexpected". I found out later that it is good to adopt a beginner’s mind attitude to whatever part of the journey I am in.

Photograph: Fiction@love art exhibition at Singapore’s art museum, June 2006.