“Do something today that your future self will thank you for.” – Unknown
I bet you remember what you wanted to become when you were a kid? Down to what it looked like, how you would feel about it and why it was even important for you.
Perhaps you met that goal and are living it today, or perhaps like many, life somehow took a different path for you. A path that looks significantly different than how you envisioned it would be.
Of course we never really know what the future holds, yet we should nevertheless have goals and dreams, and encourage others to hold onto something, especially as we’re growing up. However, there is a great chance that our lives will look much differently than how we first planned it.
From our careers to our personal relationships , things shift, get altered or all together change. I am certainly one that can speak on both.
As a kid into my late teens, I wanted to become an engineer. After taking a few classes I realized that career would not be for me. I ultimately followed the path of my father and went into the sheet metal trade, which I continue to work in today and have experienced great success.
My love life is an entirely different story. After three marriages, I cannot say this was how I dreamt that my relationships would turn out. I mean what kid is making goals like being married multiple times? That is not typically a box anyone wants to check.
However life happens and we must deal with the disappointments, changes and unplanned events. Otherwise we will live in a state of what could have been. Probably feeling like a failure, or that you let yourself and others down. I know this because it was my story for way too long.
I spent more time feeling bad about how things turned out and who I hurt, versus discovering new ways to embrace the life I was living, how I found myself there and what I needed to do to become a better version of myself.
I’ve learned that the life we live is one of purpose. We are not accidents or coincidences. What we do and how we live either depicts the insight we have about our purpose or the tremendous lack of understanding.
Oftentimes coming to this understanding requires tremendous hardship to capture our attention, to get us to become still long enough to recognize how far off the path we have gone. Only then can we begin to see and appreciate the beauty that exists within our lives.
Once we discover it, we can share it with the world. Offering hope, renewed vibrancy and richness that impacts our communities.
At the end of the day, no one knows what the future holds, however what we can know is our lives matter and the future can be shaped by what we understand about ourselves, whether today or at some point in the future.
Keep Pressing,
Hank G