You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump over the hurdles and break through the brick walls that are always going to be placed in front of you.
- -George Lucas

When I was growing up, my parents told me that whatever I wanted to do for a living was all right with them as long as I was happy. However, there were subtle messages, some unspoken, which added input to my goals. My father, an Air Force Civil Service employee for 32 years, suggested more than a few times that a Civil Service job would provide security that most jobs could not match. My mother, a math teacher, was frustrated by her inability to create change in the school system, and I saw her day-to-day struggle and knew I would not be happy with that life. Both of my parents viewed public service as a high calling.

I wanted to be a writer from the time I was old enough to put a sentence together. Oh, there was a short time when I wanted to be a doctor, but the driver’s ed films with their car crash carnage convinced me that I was not cut out for that career.

When I think back to what led me to these career choices, it was always a book. I read Elizabeth Blackwell, First Lady M.D. and wanted to follow in Dr. Blackwell’s footsteps. I read Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, Jean Kerr’s biography, and decided that being a housewife-writer was the ideal occupation. I read George Orwell’s 1984 and decided I wanted to be one of the few to know “the truth.”

The main reason I wanted a life as a writer though was because I could become lost in a book. I also discovered I could become lost in writing, whether a research paper, a school play, a short story, or an essay. I had a number of teachers who encouraged me in the pursuit of this dream.

Remember the exercise I gave you in last month’s issue – to write down the activities in your life that you lose yourself in, and the ones that energize you. These are the activities that lead you to your mission. Coincidentally, they are usually activities that you do well without much effort.

Think about what you do now for a living and what your childhood dreams were. Do the two match up? Did you find other interests as you grew up or did parents, teachers, or circumstances push you into the career you have now? After being pushed, did you decide it was actually something you enjoyed? Or did you stay in it because of inertia?

We live our most authentic lives when we do what we most enjoy. Does that mean that all of our work will be totally fulfilling? Probably not. But the closer we can come to spending the majority of our time doing what we enjoy, the closer we are to creating a life with no regrets, an A+ Life.

Here’s an exercise to get to that no-regret, A+ Life: Decide if what you are doing is your life’s calling. If not, make plans to change your course. Give yourself 20 minutes this month to daydream and write down what an ideal day would be. What would you do? Where would you be? Who would join you? You’ve probably thought about what your future could hold. Try to give the dream as much detail as possible. If you need a timeframe, see yourself ten years from now doing what you really want to do. Don’t allow any negativity to creep in. After all, it’s only 20 minutes of daydreaming. You can get back to work right afterward. Just make sure you write the dream down before you go back to the “real world.”

Were you able to see this version of yourself? Save this dream. Reread it regularly. I’ll talk about how to make it happen in future columns.

My readers are an amazing group! I got tons of brilliantly creative responses to my request for a fictionalized version of how the phrase "gung-ho" came to be. The "truth" (but do we ever know the truth?) is that the expression started with Carlson's Raiders, a marine unit operating during World War II. Their leader, Evans F Carlson had spent several years in China and took the expression from the Chinese term 'kung-ho' which means 'to work together'.

But the most original (while still appropriate for a mass audience) explanation comes from Greg McComish who wins the gift certificate to Entree's . Here's Greg's edited entry:

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the British people were starved for entertainment. Having survived the Dark Ages, the Plague, the Inquisition and generally foul smells that accompanied everyday life, they loved their diversions. Anyone providing even the slightest bit of frivolity was welcomed and celebrated.

Also prevalent at the time were roving groups of thugs. These unscrupulous characters were constantly searching for their next altercation. They lived for the fight. Nobles, peasants, they challenged all. No one was safe when they were near. They were also great dancers. Every one of them was a really good showman.

Since the locals needed a diversion of any kind, they actually began to welcome the gangs. The citizens knew they were in for a wonderful evening of entertainment when the gangs were in town. Once the fighting stopped and the broken furniture was moved, the show began. Singing, dancing and even magic tricks amused and delighted the locals.

It was such an event to look forward to, that the townspeople would place lookouts on the roads leading into town on a Friday night. If a lookout saw the gangs coming, he would shout back to the town, “Gang Show, Gang Show!”

Monks were given the task of documenting this phenomenon for future generations. Some of the monks had seen the shows themselves and many times, it is said, the monks would fondly remember the show and become distracted as they were documenting these events. Legend has it that as one Monk started tapping his foot, his knee then hit the bottom of the table on which he was writing, causing the ink well to spill. He had written the townfolk cry of “Gang Show” on the parchment. However, when the ink spilled, the only legible part looked more like “gung-ho.”

This month, another exercise in creativity. I really enjoy the stories you all come up with to explain where a particular phrase or saying comes from, so how about "gone with the wind"? I have a gift certificate from Entree's just waiting for the winner.