Your Life and You

Life is an adventure and you don't need someone to tell you that, but sometimes you just need to realize it. The problem that most people are having is that the life that they are leading isn't the life which they expected when they were younger. So what happened exactly along the way to bring you to the point you are? 

Let's look at my life. When I was a child, I was fascinated with the Marines and wanted to join the military. This was probably because I was always around military bases and saw the tanks, planes, and ordinances. I remember telling my teachers when they asked what I wanted to be when I grow up that I wanted to be a reconnaissance sniper for the Marines! Some of us have interesting childhoods. So what happened to me? When I was about seventeen I realized that I wanted a family, or at least was going to give it a chance before  I decided to join. This meant that I was going to college. So, planning ahead for a job which I might consider if I weren't going to join the Marines, I set off to study Business Administration. Well, my school's program wasn't what I wanted so I changed to Economics and found a love for it. In planning for graduate school, I decided to take more mathematics courses. As fate would have it, I met my wife and got married. Now the plan is to go to graduate school in Mathematics. 

What I'm trying to say is that I knew exactly what I was doing when I made the choices. They were rational decisions along the way that brought me to some place that I enjoy. Granted, the difference between a recon sniper in the Marines is a lot different than a mathematician, but that's because we're looking at this the wrong way. You can't look at an alternative future from the future and wonder what happened and why you're where you're at. You have to look at each monumental decision you've made and decide whether it was worth it.

This is easy for someone to admit when they like where they are at. Many people, unfortunately, are not happy with where they've ended up. For some people, it's not so much the decisions that they made, but the decisions which they did not make; and even the decisions that others made for them. When we play auto-pilot in our lives, we have no idea where we are going to end up. This is because we are not playing an active role in our lives, we aren't perceiving the choices, and we are not giving valid input. It then becomes a lottery. There is no trace back to the decisions you've made, but some random selection which occurred which placed you where you are. 

Life is the process of letting choices happen to you, it's taking advantage of the opportunities as they come. We breathe opportunities in and out every day. The question is which ones are you holding on to. It isn't some vain phrase to say that you can be whatever you want to be, but it requires you to be aware of your decisions. That is the first step. Become aware. After this, the choices are truly yours.