Today's fortune: August 12, 2011

Today's fortune: The best times of your life have not yet been lived.

The whole idea of "The Best is Yet to Come" is an extremely uplifting thought, and it can work for anybody. If you're down on youre luck, today's fortune gives you hope that you'll break free from the struggle. If you've hit rock-bottom, this fortune helps you realize that you can use your rock-bottom as a foundation for building the rest of your life. And if you're doing great, this fortune says you ain't seen nothin' yet.

As I've written, Jamie and I recently finished switching two rooms in our house - our master bedroom and our office, which is so cool and classy that I'm now referring to it as "the study." Last night, I worked on hanging pictures in the study to finish the room.

While flipping through a big box of framed photos, deciding what should go where, I discovered that the bulk of the frames are filled with journalism awards. I'm not trying to brag, but I've won dozens across numerous newspapers in three states. Anybody who has spent 10 years in journalism has won lots of awards.

In my old office, the awards were all lined up on a wall. But when I started hanging pictures last night, I discovered I didn't really care about most of them. They don't have nearly as much meaning for me as they did five years ago, or even one year ago.

Finally I decided I would hang only two of the awards. One is a first-place plaque, which I won for "Best News Story" from the Missouri Press Association in 2005. The other is a second-place certificate my newspaper won in the General Excellence category that same year (the category recognizes the best newspapers in the state in each division). I chose to display the former because it reminds me, even when I don't believe it, that I can be a good writer. I displayed the latter because it reminds me that in a former life I was a good editor.

I'm proud of what I accomplished as a journalist, and I always will be. But that part of my life is over. My life is better now, and I know it will get even better soon. The best times of your life have not yet been lived.

Case in point: today at work, I got notification that my raise, and promotion to full-fledged Widget Maker from Associate Widget Maker, is official, and the salary bump kicks in on the next paycheck. I also found out today that my accuracy and quality numbers for the month of June were the best among my team.

Next stop: Senior Widget Maker. After that? Who knows. Sky's the limit. But I have a feeling I'll be hearing Ol' Blue Eyes in my mind.