Associate with greatness

I ran across this quote today from Louisa May Alcott:

"Make each day useful and cheerful and prove that you know the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be happy, old age without regret and life a beautiful success."

I liked the quote so much that I decided to find out more about Ms. Alcott, who wrote one of my favorite books of all time (and if you don't know what it is, find out for God's sake!). She was an amazing woman. Her early writing teachers included Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller, who were all family friends. (Is it any wonder she learned how to write so well?) She was an abolitionist and a feminist, and in addition to her wonderful, wholesome novels, she wrote Victorian "potboilers" under a pseudonym featuring strong, willful women relentless in the pursuit of their own aims. They were immensely popular and Wikipedia says they are still highly readable today.

I highly recommend reading biographies or articles about people you admire, people who are succeeding in whatever field you are in. Find out how they did it. See what you have in common with them, or what habits of theirs you can cultivate in yourself. Go to their websites. If they are still alive, write them a fan letter.

Associating with greatness can't hurt, and it certainly beats watching one more story on the news about Paris Hilton.

Have a wonderful weekend,
Kara