Hope in the future
Seeing the future as an inevitable path, rather than something nebulous, makes much clearer the choices you make today. Planning one's finances, career, and life can make all the difference.
This road in County Kerry, Ireland, is typical of the nation's hilly, narrow roads with spectacular views.
Jake Coyle/AP/File
When I first graduated from college, when people asked me about my future, I would fire off a few vague statements about what I wanted. I wanted a great career! I wanted to have kids! I wanted a nice house!
All of those ideas were nebulous and vague. Sure, they echoed sentiments that I held in my heart, but they weren鈥檛 anywhere close to being authentic goals. A house? A child? A 鈥減ower鈥� career? Those weren鈥檛 things I envisioned happening any time soon. I didn鈥檛 even have any idea as to how to build a path to them.
It took a few years for pieces to fall into place. I got married. We had our first child. I began to seriously re-examine my career path.
Those changes pushed me to start re-examining all of those visions for the future. I started to ask myself what I really wanted for the rest of my life and how I鈥檇 get from where I was at to where I wanted to be.
It was that reality check that really turned around my financial and professional life.聽I stopped seeing the future as something nebulous.
滨苍蝉迟别补诲,听I began to see my future as an inevitable path.聽I am going to get older and move further along my life鈥檚 journey, but聽many of the choices I make right now will drastically shape the choices available to me then.
If I put in the extra time and effort now to establish values of independence and self-reliance in my children, then they will be much more likely to develop into self-reliant and independent adults that I can have a relationship with that doesn鈥檛 involve dependence.
If I make financially responsible choices now, then I will have vastly better options in the future when it comes to choosing the kind of life I want to lead. I won鈥檛 be forced to take unpleasant work because I need the money.
It鈥檚 a hopeful perspective.聽It鈥檚 one that recognizes that I have a future, and it鈥檚 one that realizes that my choices right now have a major impact on that future.
Earlier, I had a much more negative negative perspective on the future. I had some wishful thoughts, but I avoided thinking about them directly because聽I saw no clear path between where I was at and the things I wanted for the future.
When you sit down, figure out what exactly it is that you want from your life, and devise a plan to get there, you鈥檙e going to inevitably come up with things you need to do聽each day聽in your life in order to be able to achieve those things.
The interesting part is that聽doing those things each day feels incredibly good. It feels like you鈥檙e working toward something much bigger than today. You have this strong sense that what you do today聽actually matters聽in the bigger scheme of things instead of merely serving the function of fulfilling whatever desire you have at the current moment.
When I go to bed after a long day of not really achieving anything, I鈥檒l often lay there and reflect on a day wasted. What did I get out of that day? Not much.
When I go to bed after a long day of moving forward on my dreams for the future, I might feel tired, but I feel聽great. I feel as though I made a genuine difference in my life and, usually, in the lives of others. I usually wake up feeling a lot better, too.
The difference, I think, is聽hope. Rather than just having dreams shrouded in mist, I can聽see聽the path I鈥檓 on and I can聽see聽where I鈥檓 heading. I know that every time I put in the effort to take an extra step down that path, I move closer to those goals. They鈥檙e no longer nebulous daydreams. They鈥檙e real, and it feels聽good聽to move down the path toward them. Instead of feeling uncertain or trapped about tomorrow, I feel聽hopeful.
Financial planning, career planning, and life planning made all the difference.
The post聽聽appeared first on聽.