It is time to take control. The time to begin making effort and progress toward your big life goals is NOW. But the effort needs to be sharply focused. There’s little room for error. It’s helpful to sum your life’s focus up in just a few words. It’s not easy. Life is complex, and not without risk. Whether or not you believe it, you are unique. Choose these few words wisely, as they need to encompass everything you represent.
These few words need not last forever, however. You’ve been thru many phases. You’re going thru one now. But it will be over at some point. Maybe in a few weeks, months or years. And your narrow focus will change from phase to phase. These are the general phases I’ve been thru:
- childhood,
- school,
- my twenties,
- the early stage of my career,
- student indebtedness,
- courtship with my wife,
- my marriage, and
- parenthood.
In some ways this sounds very boring. There’s no “Blue Period”. I haven’t had a “rock and rophase. No “surfer” phase. My life has been very interesting enough, by many standards. I’m thankful for everything. But I believe that I’ve played it a little too safe in the work world. I’ve left too much value on the table for others. (and it’s ok to be selfish like this every once in a while). So now, to avoid regret later in life, I’m actively trying to spur my next phase. For lack of a better word, I’ll call this next phase “fulfillment”. Or maybe it’s the “make your mark” phase.
Surely, you’ve had moments in your life where you felt the desire, the need to stretch yourself, to perform. To use the skills you’ve trained and practiced over and over in the moment when they are most necessary. Maybe the hair stood on the back of your neck. I sometimes get goosebumps and my heartbeat quickens thinking about once in a lifetime moments of excellence.
It’s sorta like that feeling you get watching the lobby gun fight scene from “The Matrix”. Neo and his crack team of cyberpunks energetically bound into harm’s way to the loud rhythms of catchy rock/techno beats. This is the moment they’ve been training for. The excitement is real, but so is the danger. If you die in the matrix, you die in the real world too; and those Agents (who control their populace thru intimidation and deception) can morph into your scene at a moments notice and kill you almost instantly. It takes bold focus for Neo and Trinity to train for that moment, and then face the danger head on behind enemy lines, and give their full effort to achieve their goals. The “cool” of those characters in those scenes is palpable.
I wrestled in highschool. I can’t pinpoint the exact moments that felt like what I’m describing, but they were there in my wrestling days. Maybe it was every match. Some were bigger matches than others. But to some extent, every match that I wrestled had some adrenaline, some excitement that was intoxicating. Wrestling practice was difficult. But I toughed it out, and when I won a match, I had to thank the coaches and the hard work that they demanded during practice. Perfect practice makes perfect.
I sometimes feel like that while I write these articles. In many ways, I’m writing for my life. I’m writing in order to find a path to a higher precipice for myself and my family. Why does it feel so desperate? Because I have mouths to feed; and I have to earn the cheese. I (like everyone else) can’t count on generosity of others to support a comfortable life. For that matter, at work, I can barely count on kindness, encouragement, or good advice (I work at a bank).
Maybe this online magazine won’t itself be the single greatest thing I do. But hopefully this will be mildly successful, and possibly lead to other great opportunities. Certainly, “The Internet” is a skill that can be lucrative. This site by the way is a WordPress site hosted by GoDaddy. Thanks to those companies that have allowed millions of people to create, publish and thrive.
This is a bit of a rambling post. But it’s important because, it’s a rallying cry. Who am I rallying? Myself really. But maybe there’s inspiration you can take from this too. Invest in yourself, train for those moments when you need to perform at your peak in order to avoid the danger, and achieve your goals.
Oh and I almost forgot. I sum up my life’s focus in a few key words and phrases. The first one is simple and peaceful: “Healthiness and happiness”. This, I believe is the goal of life. Is it too simple? For me, no, because after nearly 40 years of living, those words mean a lot more to me than the basic definition. I’ll also steal a line from another great movie that also is simple but yet, more assertive: “Strength and Honor”. This is what Maximus Decimus Meridius would proclaim before going into battle, in a way, his rallying cry. And lastly here’s what I usually tell my kids when I leave for work everyday: “Be good. Have fun. and Be Safe”.
I believe that bold focus is about being brave and keeping it simple. What do you believe? Leave comments below.