Hi Ahmad, For some reason Yahoo is not allowing me to open your e-mail from today (Friday), so please resend.
I think now is a good time to look at the problem of your inability to get up in the morning. I have observed this both in Dhahran and here in London and it is ruining your life. Painful as it might be, you need to analyze what is stopping you getting up. I wish I had a video camera so that you could see how you self indulgently crawl back below the covers. Sleep and snoozing are nice, but so is waking up and starting the day. If this is not the case, maybe you should start a personal private blog about this. I can show you how if you don't know.
You can start by sending me a 250 word essay "Why I don't like to get up in the morning". (http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/04/how-to-get-up-right-away-when-your-alarm-goes-off/ might give you some ideas...
At these moments when you cannot (will not?) force youself out of bed, I can see how intensely sorry you feel for yourself. Now don't get me wrong, there are times when you should give yourself a break, but mostly you need to practice self conquest.
There are some famous quotes that I truly believe that we should live by. The most important is by Abraham Lincoln: "Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing." Henry Ford said it in another way: "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right."
The one quote I have carried with me since my early twenties is in the last speech by Faust in Part Two of the Tragedy:
Das ist der Weisheit letzter Schluss:
Nur der verdient sich Freiheit wie das Leben,
Der taeglich sie erobern muss.
My (free) translation is:
That is the final conclusion of wisdom;
Only he deserves freedom and life
Who has to conquer them every day
http://www.poemhunter.com/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/quotations/page-9/ has an alternative translation:
''Only those who must conquer them every day
Deserve freedom as well as life.''
One of the top self help books at the moment is SUMO (Shut up and Move on) (http://www.amazon.co.uk/S-U-M-Shut-Move-Straight-Talking-Brilliant/dp/1841127116/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295046873&sr=8-1). As you know there is nothing new under the sun. Goethe expressed a similar idea in a poem (Selige Sehnsucht):
Und so lang du das nicht hast,
Dieses: Stirb und Werde!
Bist du nur ein trüber Gast
Auf der dunklen Erde.
My (free) translation:
And as long as you do not understand this: Die and Become
Then you are just a forlorn guest on this dark earth.
This poem has been set to music many times: http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=6619
In one of his novels, Wilhelm Meister, Goethe said some other great things:
Alles Gescheite ist schon gedacht worden; man muss nur versuchen, es noch einmal zu denken.
Wie kann man sich selbst kennen lernen? Durch Betrachten niemals, wohl aber durch Handeln. Versuche, deine Pflicht zu tun, und du weißt gleich, was an dir ist.
Was aber ist deine Pflicht? Die Forderung des Tages.
Everything clever has already been thought, we only need to think it one more time.
How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to. But what is your duty? The demands of the day.
I could give you hundreds of links to Goethe, but this is a quick overview: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,834393,00.html
Now in your case, the demands of the day are getting up and arriving at work before 7:00 a.m. That is the minimum Aramco (quite rightly) expects from every employee in return for the fat salary. Who do you think that you are fooling by expecting that the quality of your translation work can make up for your persistant late arrival. what kind of example would that set to a newcomer? Anyone who has given you the idea that arriving late can be compensated for by anything has been doing you a great disservice.
Some interesting links:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/229.Abraham_Lincoln
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/203714.Henry_Ford
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe/
I hope that this is the beginning of a fruitful dialogue.
Best wishes,
Chris
