You unlock the car and get in, start the ignition, and drive; aimlessly. You’re not following any signs, and don’t need the use of a SATNAV, as you don’t have any particular destination in mind, and so you drive, and drive and drive; wasting precious time, and fuel in the process. Your guess is as good as mine, as to where you may end up; just about anywhere!
For many of us, that’s very much like what we do with our lives, we set off aimlessly into the future, without a vision, or plan of where we want to end up, and because we don’t know where we’re going; we get involved in just about anything. Ever heard of the very popular saying ‘to fail to plan, is to plan to fail’? We don’t have the exact blueprint as to how our lives are going to pan out, but we have the opportunity of choice, vision and many sign posts that we can pick up along the way, that point to what we were created to do. We feel lost when we don’t have a purpose, have nothing to look forward or wake up to.
Expressions like ‘I was born for this’, or ‘this is what I live for’ are seldom heard nowadays, but the truth is, everyone was born to do something! We don’t need to look enviously at what the next person is achieving, we need to find out what we were created to do, and get with the plan. Once we have an idea of where we want to get to with our lives, we can start making plans to reach that destination. What are you naturally really good at? What things are you really passionate about? What was your childhood dream career? Answering these kinds of questions should help us to begin to understand what we were born to do.
Why go to University for five years to study engineering, if your passion is really music? Why live an unfulfilled life working in a 9 – 5 job, just because you get a wage that pays your bills at the end of the month, when what you really want to do is run a theatre production company? The thrill of satisfaction from achieving a dream or vision that started as just a small thought is exhilarating. Setting off on an adventure to fulfil your life’s purpose is the best thing that you could ever do for yourself, and no matter where you are in your life’s journey today; it’s never too late to dust yourself off and start.
You may have to embark on a short course or a University degree, do a bit of voluntary work to get yourself in the door of a new career path, do a bit of networking; carry out some research work, or Sometimes you may find an organisation that already does some of what you would like to do, and contacting them to forge links and partnerships, could be a great place to start. You’ll need to step out of your comfort zone and take risks, but whatever you need to do, determine to make a start this week. A LinkedIn survey of 8,000 professionals, found that only 1 in four professionals in the US, and 30% of workers worldwide earn a living from a childhood dream career (LinkedIn.com). Don’t be one of the 70% of unsatisfied workers, doing what they do just to earn money; don’t look back on the wasted years of your life with regret because you got too comfortable, and failed to make a change, or take a risk when the time was right.
What could you be? If you just took advantage of every day that presented itself to you, as an opportunity for you to move in the direction of the destiny that you were created to fulfil. That’s one question that I think we all need to answer today…