“I’ll find time to do it tomorrow.”
Let’s face it. It’s the middle of the year and how many times did this statement work for you? If you ask me, there were times that this worked for me. I also can’t deny that I wasted precious time on things that won’t do good for me in the long run because of this mindset either. I wasted promising opportunities because of this. Call this a case of FOMO (fear of missing out) or whatever but I really want to have more time and energy for things that will do good for me. Well, don’t we all?
If you do, sit back. Relax. Inhale. Exhale. Clap your hands. Hold your breath. Touch your tummy.
Did you do all those? Good if you did - you’re being attentive. If you asked what’s the point of all those, you’re also good – you’re engaged. If you missed those – STOP! You’re not ready to take all of these in because your mind is somewhere else.
To those who are with me, let’s start with this idea –
No matter how well thought out your plan is, you will never be able to reach your objective without action.
“But Gail, I love to plan! Planning is my life, it is within my control. Taking action is unpredictable. I will always stumble upon things that I haven’t prepared myself for that’s why I need to plan again. And again. And again...”
Hun, planning is good and important but you seldom plan for planning’s sake. You plan to act! You plan to give yourself direction and most importantly, you plan to win!
So honey, listen to me when I say that your potential to act is overflowing. You can do whatever task it is that life presents ahead of you. Just in case you’re still not convinced...
You are in a unique position to give the world whatever you can offer. No one is you, so no one can give whatever your best can whip up. So you’re a struggling chemical engineering student? Then you can think of ways to manufacture products that will benefit the environment. Or are you perhaps a procrastinating medical technology student? You can look for cheap alternatives for chemical laboratory tests to make them accessible for the less fortunate. A lazy bum? You can spend your unused energy to search for ways to do things fast. The thing is, we might not always be the best at what we do but not everybody can do what we do. You go do you in the best way possible.
The first reason referred to our unique position in the world, this one refers to the abilities that we're naturally good at.
“But Gail, I don't have the time to pursue my interests, there're just so many things on my plate right now. I can't afford to lose any more of my time to these unproductive activities.”
You're right. You don't have that much time to pursue your interests and get good at your talents. Your job demands your 100% all the damn time. There are those who don't have the talent but would certainly want to know more about bettering themselves from you. You were blessed with a gift that some people would only ever dream about. If you won't use it, at least pass it on to somebody who wants to learn it. Think of it as your social responsibility or your way of giving back to the universe. Why? Because your job won't ever give you that same level of fulfillment. Unless you're really lucky with your job.
While we're on the topic of talent, there certainly are talented people who prefer not to pursue whatever it is that they're good at. I'm not saying this to invalidate their reasons for doing so, what I'm saying is if you really want to get good at something yet you don't have the natural talent to make things go easy for you in that endeavor - do it for those who wouldn't.
"Gail, I often get discouraged that I'm not the best at what I do."
So what if he's naturally good at math or if she's naturally graceful, the goal isn't to go back to your mother's womb and hopefully get the genes that need to get naturally good at these things. The goal is to make do with what you have and put in work to achieve the reasonable level that you've set for yourself. I know people who didn't have the natural finesse for the things that they are doing right now, but they thrive and are even admired for the effort that they put in. Confront and ask yourself about what you really want to do regardless of the skills that you have at the moment. I'd like to think that everything can be learned if you're willing to let the learning seep in.
In case you forget everything that I've laid out for you in this post, do me a favor and don't forget this last bit -
Do it for you because we can’t always give all of ourselves to the world all the time. Work for you, hun.
The world could use a bit more of you,
Gail
All the photos and words were edited by Gail for the purpose of this post. Original background images are from image 1 source, image 2 source, image 3 source, image 4 source & image 5 source.
0 comments:
Post a Comment