Quotes about moving forward and the courage to do so

• Life moves on and so should we.   Spencer Johnson
• Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.   Roy T. Bennett
• Let go of something old that no longer serves you to make room for something new.  Roy T. Bennett
• One of the happiest moments in life is when you find the courage to let go of what you can’t change.   Unknown
• God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.   Reinhold Niebuhr
• You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could’ve, would’ve happened… or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move on.  Tupac Shakur
• Inhale the future, exhale the past.   Unknown
• Nothing in the universe can stop you from letting go and starting over.    Guy Finley
• Close some doors. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because they no longer lead somewhere.   Unknown
• The only thing a person can ever really do is keep moving forward. Take that big leap forward without hesitation, without once looking back. Simply forget the past and forge toward the future.  Alyson Noel
• When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need.   Tao Te Ching
• You will evolve past certain people. Let yourself.   Mandy Hale
• Let go of certainty. The opposite isn’t uncertainty. It’s openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.   Tony Schwartz
• When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.   Alexander Graham Bell
• Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.   Erich Fromm
• It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.   Theodore Roosevelt
• Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.   Raymond Lindquist
• You don’t need strength to let go of something. What you really need is understanding.   Guy Finley

Traveling, gaining new perspective, and life changes

Traveling opens the mind to new ways of thinking and looking at situations. I don't know how many times I have returned from a trip filled with renewed hope, enthusiasm, and motivation to tackle certain aspects of life that may have appeared complicated or tricky before I left. While I am away, I seem to be able to let go in a much better way than when I am continually faced with the same situation day after day. Sometimes it IS good to get away in order to get perspective. What may seem overwhelming on a daily basis becomes manageable after getting distance from it. That is my experience and I'm sure it has been the experience of others.

Traveling allows the mind to relax and focus on the now. When I am traveling, I don't think too much about the past or the future. I enjoy the present, because the things I am doing are enjoyable and fun, and I am doing them with people I love and care about.

This will become ever more important as I get older. I know now when I want to retire, and I am moving in that direction, moving my daily life in that direction, so that all my actions translate into a gradual rather than abrupt transition into a life without a daily work schedule. Some days I think about what I will do when I retire, other days I realize I don't need to plan it all now. Perhaps it's best to let life happen, to see what life brings at that point. Many of my American friends have retired already. Those who have not, have unusual work schedules; they either have home offices or they travel a lot and are not office-bound. They've had that alternative work style for a number of years now, and seem to function quite well. They haven't had the social camaraderie of a daily workplace and they don't seem to miss it, with one exception. I don't know if I will miss it; I don't think I will. I've had it for a number of decades now, and I find it tiring to think about continuing in the same vein for another ten years.

What I will miss is my career as a scientist. As I wrote to my close friend recently about starting to clean out my office and getting rid of old files and papers I don't need anymore, I find it freeing, but a bit sad at the same time. It makes me realize that those days will be no more, those fun days of science, and that my career is ebbing. But then I remind myself that it's not impending retirement that took the fun away or caused the ebbing. It's the fact that academia turned into a huge money-making business about a decade ago, and so many of us were just blindsided by it. It's never been the same since. And that is true. It's not the getting older that changed things, it's the fact that academia is akin to the corporate world now, where huge sums of money are involved and necessary if you want to survive in it. If you don't have a business plan, or plans to patent your findings, or plans to grow your research group into a huge conglomerate, or plans to create a center of excellence, there really is no place for you anymore. You are a drain on the system if you don't bring in large grants or obtain many PhD and post-doc positions. So it seems right to plan on leaving it behind in the near future. I know it won't happen without conflicting feelings; I have accepted that major change is accompanied by uncertainty, anxiety, sadness, happiness, exhilaration, and confusion. Life is messy and it's just to accept that and live it and live through major changes in the best possible way. Many others have done it before me. I have their experiences and wisdom to guide me.