… when you become an active participant in your own life rather than a spectator watching the game. For a very long time I was one of those “wait and we’ll see what happens” kinds of people. I’d wait to see how my classes went to pick new ones, to decide what would be the next step in my degree plan, to find out whether or not I was going to be able to keep my job the next the semester; I was always just waiting around to find out how something turned out, but never really thinking past that point on a set goal.
Oh I had goals, sure, but they were never the kind that you can create a step by step, I’m just going to go and do it, plan. In the past year and a half I’ve learned that the biggest key to making sure things go the way that you want them to, is to decide in advance exactly where you want to go, figure out exactly how to get there, and make sure that your plan relies on you and you alone to execute it. This plan can’t depend in any large way on any outside x-factor that is out of your control or it becomes a “wait and see” scenario again. Now, here’s the most important part; no matter what this goal is, don’t let it out of your site! Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t or you shouldn’t. Don’t let anything make you think that it’s too big for you or too hard; that should’ve been addressed in the planning. Keep it in your sights, make everything you do another part of your path to getting there, and suddenly you realize that even your worst days are just a little better; life takes on a new feel when you realize that every moment of it is leading up to a future you’re actively building for yourself.
I just had to write something about this because it was only today that I realized that, even on my bad days, life has such luster to it that my day is never ruined by the odd horrible thing here and there. It’s just better when you know it has a course and a destination.
Oh, that’s the last thing, don’t ever set one of your destinations as the last one; there is always another step, you just have to have the courage to take it.