Getting There.

One of my friends recently commented that he had not sat down and written out his goals and dreams. He wasn't leading himself or heading towards anything in particular. Drifting.

Fantastic to recognise this early in life. 

I've witnessed so many who are in the same place today as they were five, ten or twenty years ago. They start at a place and just don't move on. Consequently their life becomes a treadmill of sameness. They go to the same job, do the same tasks, watch the same programmes on TV, have the same friends and do the same things each week-end. The only thing that changes, is their age.

They are not challenged to be better, to be different or to stand out. They are happy being where they are. 

The trouble is where they are today, as say a twenty five year old, may not necessarily be a great place to be when they are forty.

I watched a show on TV recently that covered binge drinking. They highlighted how, in Australia, binge drinking had become an enormous problem among our young people. Teenagers and young adults in particular were drinking way beyond levels that the human body can sustain. They were partying and having a good time. 

The programme did show the distasteful side also, such as the violence which often breaks out when large groups of people are drinking, and the severity of these altercations. All young people interviewed were adamant they were doing it for just a good time.

The common belief is that this is a phase and young people will "grow out of it". Well surprise, surprise it was discovered that many do not. For many, binge drinking became a culture, a habit which, as they grow older, they continue to maintain.  

A twenty year old who has had too much to drink can be viewed as someone who is having a good time. A fifty year old who has had too much to drink is viewed as a drunk.

These people have not moved on, they are stuck in a time warp. What was once a good time is now simply a habit and a large headache in the morning.

Dr David M. Burns says "Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life".

We need to identify when we are on the wrong course, we need to have the guts to say "I was wrong, what I once believed was a good path to follow, I now recognise as incorrect". We need to question what we do and continually ask if we can do life better or differently.

My friend was right in questioning his direction. He has recognised that if he doesn't, then he'll wake up in twenty years and find neither he nor his circumstances have changed.

Where will you be in twenty years? What will your life look like? What will you look like? Will you be the same, will you be doing the same things?

Where are you heading? What are your dreams?