Embracing My Journey ~ Living with passion & purpose!

“Larry Cohen spent the bulk of his career in the Howard County Public School System, until his retirement in 2006. In total, he spent over 30 years in education as principal, assistant principal, teacher, pupil personnel worker, and administrative liaison.   On his 58th birthday, Larry Cohen decided that even though he still hadn’t figured all of life’s answers out, the values he had learned so far were worth sharing. In fact, the very process of trying to figure it all out is what might make the difference in the recipe for a life worth living.”   Today he is the author of “I’m Still Trying To Figure It All Out Myself….” and here to share his wisdom with us.

Welcome Larry Cohen and thank you for sharing your wisdom as part of the “Living the Life of My Dreams” series.

Living the life of one’s dreams is something many people believe to be a myth…. yet; you are living proof that one can achieve this goal…What kept you moving forward on the days things were not going exactly the way you were hoping they would? I think the things that kept me going were, first personally, my responsibilities to my wife and children.  I always felt that as a parent I had the awesome responsibility for caring, protecting, and taking care of my children and had to continue on regardless of the daily challenges.  Regarding my professional career, I always reminded myself that every day in every thing I did and in every decision I made I was impacting people’s lives, especially children’s lives.  I couldn’t afford to give up because I had to demonstrate to others to never give up.  We have to realize that life does not always go the way we want it to and we have to be flexible and adaptable to meet all new and different challenges.  I felt it was my obligation and responsibility to model that behavior.  In addition, having a sense of humor and always looking for a reason and an opportunity to laugh kept me moving forward.

What piece of advice would you give to someone who has decided they would like to live in a world of their own creation? If I understand the question correctly, I would tell people that life is about choices and that we are ultimately responsible for the choices and decisions we make.  I would add that often the choices of others do impact us.  Ultimately, however, it is our choices and decisions that determine the type of life we live.  I would encourage people to follow their dreams and passions, continuously reflect and focus on where they are and where they are going, always work toward self improvement, and always try to work to help others, make a difference and improve upon the world we live in.

What special things do you do for yourself daily to maintain your momentum and energy levels? In addition to getting up early so I can have the whole day ahead of me, and exercising to keep myself as physically fit as I can, I do a lot of self-reflection and always look for ways to improve myself and help others.  Helping others gives me the greatest satisfaction.  If I can make a difference in the life of another person in a positive and meaningful way, my day is complete.  I also always try to laugh and make others laugh as well.  I also try be nice and kind to everyone I come into contact with and treat every person with the respect and dignity they deserve.  Of course my family’s health and safety on a daily basis is always my number one priority.

If you could spend 3 days on a deserted island with two people of your choosing, who would they be and why? I’d like to have my parents back again for those 3 days to talk about and ask the questions that I was too naïve and stupid to ask when I was younger and they were alive.

What / who are you most thankful for and why? My family and friends and, of course, my health.  Nothing is more important than my wife and kids, the memories we share, and the relationships we have with good friends and family.

Anything I missed that you would like to share?

Caryn – I appreciate your taking the time to allow me to share some of my thoughts and ideas.   I would hope that my book, “I’m Still Trying To Figure It All Out Myself….” (www.Ravenwater.com), will help make a difference in people’s lives and lead to a better world.

Thank you Larry for sharing your words of wisdom. I encourage everyone reading this to visit Larry’s blog at: http://www.larryhcohen.wordpress.com and connect with him directly!

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Caryn FitzGerald is a motivational columnist, speaker and writer, she has been featured in and published several books, including “Manifest Success” & “Visual Arts Junction Interviews.”  Caryn spent a decade in darkness and is now living in the light and sharing her inspiration with others.  Read more from Caryn at her website CarynFitzgerald.com.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 11:47 am and is filed under Caryn's writing, Living the life of my dreams. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.