The motivation to succeed. To accomplish my goals. To follow my dreams. Lately I have been speculating about my future. As of January 8th, I am now officially 22 years old. My father, brother, and me had lunch in Santa Barbara the other day and our dad was talking about how he wants to write a book about how life does not always go as planned. It kind of hit me to the extent of a “wow” factor that I am young and need to take advantage of my youth and accomplish as many things as I can. I know what I want, but have doubts whether or not things will work out the way I want them to. I do not want to be one of those guys who look back at life and say to myself that “my life did not go as planned.”

Taking Action for the Future
I want to make a change in my life. I want to surround my life with the things I enjoy and positive energy. Having the right people in my life and friends that I know will support me and my decisions. I was thinking about how I am in a fraternity, which is great but I just do not really care about all the drinking and partying anymore. Yeah, I hear a lot that this is the only time (in college) that we can drink, party, and have fun but I would rather put in the time right now to have the future that I desire. This would mean drinking and going out a lot less and focusing on the things that will allow me to to live the life I see myself living. Work hard now and play hard later.

It really seems hard to put to words about how I feel and I wish I knew how to express the emotions, desire, and passion I have towards my friends, future, and business ideas. EVERY day it goes through my head and in the future I do not want to be a prisoner in a life that I hate because of my past decisions. I do not want to be that prisoner that says to himself that I could have tried harder. It is kind of weird to say this, since I am young, but like everyone else I want to have a family in the future and be the best dad in the world. I want to be financially stable and live in my dream house. I was watching Run’s House, a reality television show on MTV, a while back and a story that Rev (Joseph Simmons) told his younger son truly inspired me. The story went something along these lines telling his son that when he was younger he saw a big house, his dream house, and wrote a letter and put it in the mail box. The letter said that “I will buy this house someday,” and he did not leave his name. Rev, as we all know, became successful and went back to that house when he was an adult and knocked on the door. A man answered the door and Rev introduced himself. The man explained to Rev that he was a relative of the previous owner who passed away. After that he showed Rev the original letter and told Rev that he knew that he would be back one day to buy the house.

I kind of got off topic, but what I wanted to get to is that hard work will eventually pay itself off. I hope mine will at least in the future. As I think about my future, close my eyes, and vision my life there are a million thoughts that run through my mind. In the end, I always have a smile because of the faith and hope I have that I will become the person I envision. That my life will turn out the way that I want it to.

I do not really know how many of you read this this anymore, but a lot of you may know that being a college student surrounded by a lot of people your age can be kind of intimidating or embarrassing if you do something out of the norm. I plan on making a list of goals and things I wish to accomplish and hanging it up on the wall. I plan on making a collage of everything I dream of and hanging it next to my list of goals. I want to be able to wake up every morning and remind myself of the meaning of life. I do not want anymore of my bullshit excuses and laziness of why something has not been done. I need to take action and make things happen.

A few quotes to leave you on…

“My interest is in the future because I am going to be spending the rest of my life there.

“I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act.” -Abraham Maslow

“Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way.” -Les Brown

“Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Champagne in one hand, strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO HOO – what a ride!”

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears. -Glenn Clark

Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. -Mark Twain

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

And lastly, a quote from one of my dad’s favorite movies Tin Cup.

“When a defining moment comes along, you define the moment… or the moment defines you.” -Kevin Costner who plays Roy McAvoy

Flickr Photo: antsplan

Popularity: 33% [?]