Where it all starts

I think the first thing we need to ask ourselves is what we want out of life, and what our goals are. Do you want to become famous? Do you want to improve something in the world? Do you want to become rich? Do you want to become a healthier individual? Do you want to become very knowledgeable? Do you want to have a big family? And so on…

Think about it, no matter what the undertaking is, at whatever scale, without a final goal we are simply spreading the energy we have aimlessly into different areas in small amounts. To achieve something significant, or reach a goal that matters, one has to direct concentrated energy and thought towards that action. Everyone has tried this as a child, perhaps in the form of a game, in the form of a sport, or anything similar. For example, the vast majority of people have tried playing a videogame, where they wanted to finish it or reach a certain level, but it just wasn’t happening that easily. We would think about it, and try again and again and again, until we finally did it. The point is, because we had that specific goal in the videogame, we concentrated more energy and thought towards it than usually and maybe even made different strategies and plans, which resulted in reaching the goal.

This is one of the beneath-the-surface things we learn from school. In High School for example, we have a certain goal, which is to study the subjects we take in order to successfully finish High School and receive our Diploma. In order to achieve that we have a strategy in the form of a “syllabus” and a “schedule”, where we follow the syllabus through our schedules day after day in order to successfully reach the goal of passing the exams, and getting a Diploma. Through the aid of the syllabus and the schedule we direct our efforts in a much more significant way. This way of long-term planning and execution is taught to us in school, although in a subconscious manner. Whether we realize this or not depends on if we simply look at things the way they are and accept them, or if we take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

Many choose to spend a few years exploring the world and experiencing new things, thereby getting to know themselves and what they want better, and because of that, many choose not to ask themselves what they want out of life while in their teens and early adulthood, as they feel they will be able to better make that decision later on after having explored the world. This is of course a good way of thinking, however the trouble is, that exploring and then deciding can take up many years, and time itself is one of the things in the world which we have a finite amount of.

While the decision of what one wants to do with his/her life should not be made swiftly and while very young, starting to ponder over it while a teenager with few responsibilities allows us to make it based on our interests and wants, while giving us time to fully assess the decision before reaching adulthood and having to make the decision, thereby allowing us to know for certain whether we really want to do that in the future. This process of deciding one’s future, will take more time for some than others, however after one has made his/her choice, then one can finally start the long-term planning and execution needed for reaching that goal, and that is where it all starts.