Progress

I was talking with someone earlier and we were discussing plans for the future and the path that we set out for ourselves. They were mentioning that they are happy where they are now. They were letting life lead them where it wanted. They said that to make plans is just to set yourself up for disappointment.

I was a little taken back by that. Now there is no more free spirit in the world than I am. I float by and just let the winds of destiny push me about more than anyone in the universe. The thing that surprised me by this person saying that is that they are very goal oriented and mindful of where they are going and where they want to go.

I am always amazed when people do not see how much they push their lives in a certain direction everyday. Every step you take is pushing you towards a certain future. You make a decision every moment based on where you want to be and who you ultimately want to be. Even if you are allowing others to define you and push you along, you are making the ultimate decision. Whether you decide to associate with people who are pushing you down or with people that are lifting you up, you are making a decision about where you want to go and who you want to be seen as.

Are you going to allow people to push you down and insult you. If so you are deciding to fail and be disappointed at the end of life when you look back and ask what if? Could I have? Why didn’t I? It saddens me to see people that think that to live life in a box is more comfortable than to reach forth and grow. To become,

Or are you going to allow yourself to listen to the honest praise and advice of people who seek to raise you up and see you achieve more than even you dream possible. If you expect more of yourself than you thought possible, you might achieve it.

Are there going to be times when you fail. Hell Yes! Ann Landers said, “If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity it would be this: expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and when it comes, hold you head high, look it squarely in eye and say, `I will be bigger than you…” And Flip Wilson says, “You can`t expect to hit the jackpot if you don`t put a few nickels in the machine.”

Never should anyone be happy with where they are. That leads them to plant roots and stop looking higher and further for better things. To just sit somewhere unhappy and unfulfilled because of past actions that have put you there is defeat. Prisoners are released from their physical cells to move forward in life, but too many of us hold on to the mental cells and barriers of comfort and ease. We find a place where we are “happy” or we tell ourselves we are happy in that place. The prison doors are standing wide open and we are too comfortable to move out of the cell we have confined ourselves to and experience freedom.

That goes back to surrounding yourself with the right people. Growing up, I was allowed to try anything I could dream. I was allowed to fail. But I was never called a failure. I was encouraged to learn what went wrong and try again.

Life is meant to be a fun experience. It is too damn short to not be. It has an end for all of us. I think that is for a reason. It gives us the purpose to do. We are faced with the fact that our time is short. We must drive ourselves to achieve something. To leave something. To just do something. We don’t have time to contemplate and waiver. None of us are promised tomorrow or the next minute, but we live life like we have a hundred years.

Go out and live now. Play hard. Love hard. Live hard. I am convinced that it makes the end less hard when it comes.