Doug Marlette: Ways To Live A Good Life

Doug Marlette is a cartoonist who gives high school commencement speeches. He believes that there are ten simple ideas to live your life by, some of which is don't do drugs, don’t listen to celebrities, and read. The one idea he states that I think the most important is to practice. You can always improve at anything when you practice. Every year thousands of the worlds brightest people give Commencement speeches to graduating classes. One of these people is Doug Marlette, he is a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist. Marlette believes that are ten simple steps to live by in order to have a happy life. I know from experience that there are always people telling you what to do, how to live your life, but people do not listen and to be honest I do not listen either. However, Doug actually gives good advice.

What Doug Marlette says to live by Doug Marlette outlines 10 main points to live by don't get caught downloading music, do not email anything you wouldn't want to be forwarded to your boss, practice practice practice, don't worship celebrities, read, recognize political correctness for what it is: a bureaucratic way of thinking, do not trust experts, be competitive, don't do drugs, what you have done does not define you it is what you will do that does. This list may not seem like a lot, but life will give you so many ways to not do these things.

What I am good at I try to live life to the best of my ability and usually I feel that I am fairly successful at doing that. One big thing I pride myself in the most of is my ability to be competitive but still, treat my opponents with the respect and dignity they deserve. In his speech, Marlette said “The word “competition” derives from the Latin con, which means “with” and petere, which means “to strive”.

Competition – to strive together

Competitors are in secret alliance, not to do each other in, but to bring out the best in each other”. This snippet from his speech really connected with me, because this day in age everything’s a competition from grades and athletic abilities to how many pencils you can stick up your nose. People need to stop worrying about being the best and start worrying about things that really matter such as global warming and world hunger. What I think is important Living the life of a high school student I have seen how easy it is for people to fall under the spell of drugs, celebrities, and even political correctness. When people fall into this trance most people do not want to or are too scared to do anything about it. For instance a few weeks ago a couple of friends of mine were at a football game and when they went to go use the restroom there where there were a couple of kids in the corner selling drugs. When they got back outside there was an SRO (student resource officer) standing right outside the restroom and they decided not to tell him about it. The next week when we were back in school they told us about it and we all got into a pretty heated argument about whether they should have done something about it. I am grateful that someone has the guts to stand up for what is right.

The challenge of practicing

They say practice makes perfect and they are correct. Everything you do you can get better at it, but in order to get better, you have to practice. According to a recent study done by Rice University found that practice will not make everyone perfect at everything, it will make almost everyone better in some way. The problem is who actually has time to practice anything. With so many different things that you can practice there is simply not enough time to do everything that you need to even if you want to. Chooses about practicing In life, there is so much to do, and with everything that you can do most people rather spend their time doing laundry or being with their family than practicing and that is a choice a lot of people end up making. With myself still being “young” I am not burdened with all the jobs and responsibilities of an adult and I still struggle to have time to do my homework, chores, home life, and practice for band. I can't even imagine how someone with a full-time job and all the responsibilities I currently have. Even though people have so many responsibilities they are still able to practice and are able to get everything they need to be done, but that decision is up to you.

What are the consequences of not practicing

The problem is if you don't practice than there can be some dire consequences. When you need to practice and you do not then it is not only bad for yourself, but also for the people around you. I know that In-band when someone does not practice their music or drill it, makes the entire band look and sound bad. When do not practice you not only embarrass yourself, but you also put everyone that is working with you and yourself behind time. Not practicing can also lead to you not having good grades because you did not practice. On the flip side if you end up spending all your time practicing something that doesn't need to be practiced or you practice something else so much you can't do something else you need to get done.

Should you practice or should you not

Even though there are few tiny consequences that can come from practicing the good significantly outweigh the bad. Even if by some miniscule chance you over practice one thing so you can't practice something else you still get a lot of practice at something. So. Practice, Practice, Practice because you can improve everything with practice. What practicing will do for you and Closer Later in life when you look back at your youth you will say to yourself “ I wish I did this”, or “ I should have practiced this more”, and you will be correct. Now, when you are learning something learn it the right way and then as you get older practice it even if it is just a little every now and then. Then in the future when you need to know it, you will and you will not have to learn it again, as I have had to do so many times already in my life. If you practice something now in life you will remember not only better but longer too. Out of everything I have written in this paper just remember that, practice will not make everyone perfect at everything, it will make almost everyone better in some way.