They say it’s harder to stay on top than it is to get to the top. Maybe it’s because we begin to get complacent and forget what it took to get there.

Family businesses that get turned over to the younger generation over the years can fall into that same trap. After all, they weren’t the ones that had to start the business by rubbing two stones together.

When they showed up the company was already successful. They walked into a fully-furnished office with their name plate on the door.

We can’t become arrogant with ourselves, but remain humble and work as if it’s our first day on the job.

Oh yeah. And stay feisty.

I have to remind myself often that this too shall pass. Nothing remains forever and even though we may feel stagnate, we don’t ever step in the same stream twice in life.

Circumstances change, different people are involved and most of the time there are very few elements that resemble the previous situation although it doesn’t feel like it sometimes.

The point being, that we rarely – if ever – face the exact same situation in life. There are too many variables to consider and even though we feel like we’ve been here before, seeing it with new eyes is always the most constructive way to handle it.

Most importantly, we are different. We’re not the same person we were the day before, nor the same one facing this new day.

Is a person with a million dollars happier than one with half a million? Is a financial advisor happier than a plumber? Is a movie actor more happy than a game show host? Is a novel writer happier than comic book writer?

Not sure. I might have thought so when I was younger. But, now I would subscribe to the theory of: happy is doing what you enjoy and not how others view you.

In actuality, it took me a long time to figure that out. And I’m still working on distilling down what exactly those activities are. Maybe I’ll spend the rest of my life doing that.

That’s okay. I’m good with that.

If we’re not careful, we can end up being a reflection of the world around us – a reaction to it – rather than an unique beaming light brilliantly glowing the truth of who we are.

Time/life/people can so easily do that to us over the years, if we allow it. It’s the persistent, the idealists, the madmen and women, the creators, the artists, the sage, the aware – who refuse to compromise. Who decline to walk the path more traveled, but instead blaze their own no matter how thick the brush, how long the journey or burdensome it may be.

It’s the perpetual flame within that guides them to their ultimate destiny. Certainly, not from what the pundits claim to sell seats, gain raving reviews or accumulate likes. It’s in the quiet stillness where the whispers of their heart confide in them their deepest hopes, dreams and desires. As fragile and ludicrous as they may be.

I’m the first one to say that I’m terrified of change.

Always. Every time.

But, I also know change is inevitable and there is nothing I can do to stop it. The way I look at it, I would rather get out in front of it, square my shoulders to it and be in charge of my destiny rather than be a drifting boat in the middle of the ocean being tossed about at the will of the waves.

And more times than not, I come out on the other side of the change a better person overall.

It may be a uncomfortable for moments at a time, but what is life without the ying and the yang.