How you live your life and what you do with it shapes not only your future but also that of the world. What matters is that each of us has a purpose in life—to make a positive contribution to the world we live in. The most important thought that you could hold is: Your life matters.

How do we discover our purpose in life? How do we justify our actions, decisions, or convictions? Until now, I hadn’t given this much thought beyond the fact that everyone needs a reason to get up in the morning, a reason to live, to hike, to dance, to play. The very reason you exist. And then I read this story I came across about Bruce Lee:

“A master martial artist asked Bruce to teach him everything Bruce knew about martial arts. Bruce held up two cups, both filled with liquid. “The first cup,” said Bruce, “represents all of your knowledge about martial arts. The second cup represents all of my knowledge about martial arts. If you want to fill your cup with my knowledge, you must first empty your cup of your knowledge.”

If you want to discover your true purpose in life, you must first empty your mind of all the false purposes you’ve been taught (including the idea that you may have no purpose at all). Have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t have a purpose” or “Life is meaningless?” Sad to hear and even more difficult to respond to.

I continue to praise the rewards of the environment, whether hiking, visiting a zoo, or volunteering at a shelter. Life is empty if we’re not useful.

This us a circle made of mints for artistic purposes:

Here’s something for scientific discussion:

Three things bore me to tears: business conferences (NOT writers conferences), business meetings, and making small talk at cocktail parties. Everything else I chalk up as restlessness. I’m restless that the plot for my next book isn’t coming together. I’m restless when I’d rather be outdoors than sitting behind a computer.

How could anyone be bored hiking the trails in the San Francisco Bay Area? From Brushy Peak in Livermore:

to the Pinnacles National Monument:

Or spending time with friends or family? Do you recognize anyone in this photo?

Or time in Aunt Carole’s cottage at my niece’s farm in Ohio:

Or role playing with SWAT? Yeah, that’s me. I shot him in the leg with my paint gun.

Or simply enjoying nature.

And spending time with my writng consultant, Shilo. She watches me closely from the sofa in my den:

Did I mention I take tons of pictures on my hikes? I never use the word “bored” because I never have enough time to do everything I’d like to do. I wonder if others confuse “bored” with “restlessness.”

This is a good and important question, one I’m often asked. I’ve only written three novels (one published, one currently with my editor, and one I just brought out of mothballs). I didn’t outline any of them. Not intentionally, that’s just the way it was. You see, I didn’t know any better and not sure I do now. Since I was assigned to write about the topic “to outline or not,” I’ve given it some real thought and here is what I came up with.

I print out Google Maps but never look at them. My hiking partner is always checking the trail map to see which path we should take. I just want to pick one and keep walking to see where it goes and to heck with a map. If I’m driving and see a road I’ve never taken, I’ll sometimes get off to see where it goes. I buy “how to” kits and never use them. See where I’m going with this? At the start of Sour Grapes, the second book in my series, I wrote a semi-detailed synopsis as my guiding light because someone (Ann? Penny?) suggested I try that instead of an outline. I wrote one and then ignored it. I figure if I stay open to inspiration and let my imagination run free, I might come up with an unpredictable twist that will surprise me and even my readers. I’m not saying it’s easy.

That said, I do my research and make notes for possible scenes, but I want it to be a journey of discovery. I know my location and I write extensive backgrounds for my main characters, but I want them to develop in ways that will surprise me. I throw stones at them to see their reaction. I thought I knew the killers in each of my books before I started writing, but to my surprise a better idea with an unpredictable twist popped up when a character revealed something to change it. That’s what keeps me excited about writing. I haven’t entirely given up the idea of a rudimentary outline because, admittedly, I have written myself into a corner with no way out except to change something that took me there. That can mean a lot of rewrite.

Harlan Coben never outlines but he does know the ending before he starts writing. John Grisham spends more time on an outline than he does on the actual writing. Joseph Finder thinks writing without an outline is like doing a high-wire act without a net. Obviously, their decision to outline or not is working for them.

Some habits are hard to drop, so I’ll probably keep on doing what I’ve been doing.

To quote Mark Twain:

“Life is short, Break the Rules. Forgive quickly, Kiss SLOWLY. Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably. And never regret ANYTHING that makes you smile.”

In life, there are plenty of unwritten rules—on a bus or subway offer your seat to the elderly, don’t walk into a restaurant five minutes before they close, and stand on the right side of an escalator. Rules are guidelines everyone is expected to follow. I’ve never been comfortable breaking the rules—or maybe I’m simply afraid of being caught. But I think we all have a bit of the devil in us—I certainly do. I drive faster than the speed limit.

Rules for success: In my opinion, principles of truth go hand in hand with our conscience. Too many times people try to be successful without obeying their sense of right and wrong. They may try to take shortcuts to success, or they may sacrifice their family, friends or other people for the sake of success. Unfortunately, that is just bad success, and will eventually do them more harm than good.

Rules for sports: I love football. For most football sports fans “taking a knee in the final minutes” is an unwritten rule. Usually this rule goes along the lines of not running up the score. There’s no reason to show your opponent up when the outcome of the game has already been determined. You’re supposed to take the knee, shake their hands, and walk off the field with their integrity intact.

Rules of the Internet (anything goes): There are a lot of places in the world that are actively using the technology of the Internet to control the free communication among citizens, to identify critics of the government, to trash Hollywood and actors and harm them. We need to be mindful that the tools that are implemented on the Net are tools for the global Net. Everything we say or do effects a real life person. Being rude or mean because “it’s just the Internet” is not an excuse. The Internet is what we make it. The Internet is a big place. The rules seem to fluctuate and the validity of each rule is debatable. Maybe some future generation will figure out the true guideposts of Internet life. There seems to be a lot of rules that work for the creators more than anyone else.

You can’t accomplish a purpose if you don’t have a beginning. I begin each hike with the resolution to climb higher, hike longer, and go farther, and take lots of pictures. Most trails branch out in other directions and become yet another beginning.

I obsess about the first paragraph, first page, and first chapter at the start of a new book, trying to get it right. It’s difficult because I don’t outline and have no clue how it will end. I recently read the following on writing tips: “Sometimes an ending makes a good opening. If you’re like a lot of writers, you figure out what you have to say as you write it. This may mean that in the last paragraph of your first draft, you really say what you mean: your ideas are clearest here, most concise. So, take that last paragraph and make it first, and you have your opening.” What do you think? Worth considering?

You can’t create something if you don’t try—a quilt, a sweater, or a stained glass birdhouse. While I’ve tried many crafts, the thought of failure never crosses my mind when I start a new project. I’ve worked with stained glass for many years with some success.

Then there’s the Happy Ever After, a key quality of life. To love and be loved is an empowering emotion. To quote Shakespeare: “The course of true love never did run smooth,” ~ A Midsummer Night’s Dream; “A light heart lives long,” ~ King Henry IV. Beginnings are usually frightening, while endings are often sad, but it’s what’s in between that makes it all worth trying.

Everything ends but there are always new beginnings.