A suggestion at last year's pre-retirement seminar: when you reflect upon your life, don't fret about missed opportunities, jobs you should have gotten but didn't, failures to make obscene profits in the stock market, embarrassing accidents, people who insulted you, etc. Instead, look back and see if you can say, "On the big stuff, I pretty much did OK." That's real success.

So what's the Big Stuff that we get graded on? Start with:

• family (and relationships in general)
• learning (and not just in school)
• career (plus volunteer work)
• healthy choices (but with some silly behavior that doesn't cause permanent harm)
• having fun (and doing something outrageous once in a while)

The virtues in the Boy Scout "Law" aren't bad character goals to pursue: trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, etc. Likewise the clause in the Scout oath: "Help other people at all times."

_{(cf. My Religion (2000-11-06), Some Good (2000-12-16), Basement Worries (2002-06-15), ...) - ^z - 2011-11-17}