Changed Directions

So I have decided to write about something that has come up in conversations with several of my friends lately that at least in some way touches most people throughout their life. The issue is self worth with regards to progress and goals. Maybe it's the changing of the seasons, but several people have gotten very downtrodden and one of the main things that they seem to have issue with is that they feel like they aren't going anywhere. Since I have had this feeling several times in my life, I can understand completely, but as I have gotten older, I have come to have a greater understanding of the problem, and what to do about it.

I think that there is some inherent need within people to have direction in their lives. For some people (like myself) it is almost a constant driving force, while in others it only occurs to them once in a while, but somewhere deep down, it still exists. No matter which of these people you are, there are points in your life where you stop, look around and when you see yourself with no direction to go, or no ground behind you, it is easy to become down, to lose faith in yourself and feel uncomfortable in your life. I know that there have been several occasions where that has been the case with me.

As most of you know, I am a very ambitious and driven person. In addition, my goals often seem ridiculously grandiose to most people. For me, I have always felt that I had a lot to do in this world, and I have never felt satisfied setting my goals lower than what my heart told me to. In addition, I am, in true Sagittarian form, blindly optimistic, so I can get away with goals that most people balk at. Of course with such high aims, and of course my lack of patience, I often became discouraged at life's challenges.

One of the best examples I can think of is school. Immediately after high school, I went to Harvard, but could only afford to stay for one session. When I came back, I got entangled in the life of my best friend at the time, and basically because of him put of school for the next 2 and a half years. When I finally realized the impact that he was having on my life and the selfish nature with which he was using me, I felt impossibly behind. For me, my life had always been planned around the thought of good grades in high school, followed by college, and from there to make my dreams come true. This horrible deviation derailed me and sent me spiraling down into self defeat.

Since that time, I have realized that my impression was wrong. Although there may have been benefit to avoiding the situation altogether, having lived through it, I had to make the best of what I was left with. What I found was that during that time, I unearthed my natural affinity for business, and learned some of life's most valuable lessons. These things probably wouldn't have happened on my "dream track." Of course since then, I have put some emphasis on school, but it has now been prefaced on learning, not on the degree, and I am no longer willing to sacrifice my life for that peice of paper.

I am now almost 24 years old, and had I followed my road map, I would have graduated a year and a half ago. I would probably even have a good job, although I don't know if I would be happy there. What I have instead is the groundwork for my dream. I have started making the network of businesses which I feel will bring my goals into fruition. Had I not been derailed by life, I may never have found this outlet, and I certainly wouldn't be as far along today as I am. People seem constantly surprised that I have done so much with my life at so young, and I now realize that it wasn't my original intention at all. I simply grasped the straws that I was left with and made the most of it. In retrospect, it was the best thing that could have happened to me.

The moral that I draw from this story is mainly that you can't be defeated. You can't look back on your life and see how little ground you have covered, and let that hold you back. There are going to be times when we feel like we are walking in place. If we stop, then we truly do lose our momentum. It is important to keep going forward towards our goals and to let life throw things in our path. I have always believed that things happen for a reason. Call it fate or the hand of God, I think that we sometimes need to be derailed in order to get where we really want to go.

What I think is the hardest thing for people to do, and yet the thing that must be done is to keep going, and to take value in the small steps that we take. My friend Christopher recently mentioned to me that he had taken "the first step in a million" that had to be taken in order to get to the career goal that he wants. We all go through this. The important thing to realize is that so long as we are moving forward, we are doing what we need. For Christopher, it was his first literary review. Was it with the publication he wanted, or with the title he desires? No. But he was writing. Do I have my degree? No. But I am constantly taking classes that enhance my education. I am making progress. Do I have an international network of businesses that can change the political and social landscape with its reach? No. But I have created the framework. I have a network in place that in the future can grow to the scope I see so far off. We have to look at this forward progression as an accomplishment all on its own.

One of my friends was lamenting about his job, and how he wanted something more. I told him not ot get so hung up on the fact that he didn't have the job that he wanted yet, but instead to look at whether or not he was doing something that was going to get him where he wanted to go in the future. Was he taking classes? Was he meeting people? Was he reading and expanding his horizions to be able to seek out what he wanted? I told him that if any of these answers were yes, then he was making progress. He was moving forward in his life.

Not trying to be cliche, but I truly believe that "Life is a journey, not a destination." We need to make sure that we are on a journey to better ourselves and reach our goals, but at the same time enjoy ourselves along the way. I am not willing to sacrifice my life or those that I love for a single step in my journey. It may take me longer, but I will get there eventually, and because of the life I have led and the people that I have kept close to me along the way, I will be glad that I got there. I guess what I want to say more than anything is that people should have faith in themselves, and let the journey be a good one. Things won't always go as planned, but so long as you keep moving forward and enjoy the scenery while you are there, things will always work in the end.