With the world in turmoil regarding health, wealth, employment, strife and climate, it is a good time to take a look at the choices we make and the directions we take in life.
Clearly we are not all the same. We all have different personal characteristics made up from our genetic soup. We all have strengths and weaknesses and view the world differently.
There are many X factors which impact our choices and directions.
Many people are planners, the more extreme ones have every waking moment accounted for, whilst the average planner is somewhere in between.
The day is mapped out.Times for waking, eating, working, social activity, family and bed times.
Planning allows the time to be organized in such a way that all the components of the day which need to be fitted in, can be dealt with in an orderly way.
It may involve one person only or it can involve families or groups of people.
Planners will have holidays booked early, the right time to move house and when to go for job promotions.
They will always have an eye on the future and the most efficient way to deal with it.
This way of life will be incredibly efficient, but there may not be time to savour some of the important things which are necessary to experience the joy and spontaneous happy moments in life, if the time is so regimented.
The opposite of planning is "going with the flow".
This approach can be of a temporary nature, often associated with young people who can be idealistic about certain ways of life promoted by celebrities and tend to follow trends of fashion.
Going with the flow can be mean not having a particular view point, so just following along with the majority. It also means going along various pathways of life to unknown destinations.
It may be a system which works if life does not follow a pattern. Perhaps someone may work and live in a very unstructured way due to a variety of reasons, such as unpredictable employment involving travel, or living with extended family. Having a "planning" nature would not sit happily with this way of life.
Because of their relaxed outlook, non planners often meet amazing people, "drift" into good jobs, and end up having interesting lives, because they are not so tied to a tight schedule and may not be averse to taking the odd risk or two.
Non planners often enjoy their work as they may find employment associated with something they are happy to do such as linked to an interest. Perhaps not well paid or lacking a career structure, but satisfying while it lasts.
There are many who live their entire lives as free spirits. They live for the moment and do not think very far ahead or make much if any provision for the future.
To free wheel like this can have advantages as the outlook on life will be less stressful and more meaningful given the lack of importance of a more materialistic world and ambition in the work place.
However, if there are other family members or others to consider, this way of life can be viewed as rather chaotic, disorganized and unpredictable.
At the extreme end of this scale, a severe lack of direction can also have very negative impact on self esteem and mental health, resulting in anxiety, depression and low self confidence.
Somewhere in the middle there is a huge group which can be a bit of both.
Many people simply don`t think about lack of direction and ambition. It is not that they are lazy as they will no doubt be employed, but possibly in a job which brings no other satisfaction than some money at the end of a month.
This is an accepted way of life and a life that is led by millions. They feel lucky to be employed and put up with any lack of job satisfaction as a necessary fact of life. The money paid is used to provide the essentials of life and the time spent at work is made bearable by interacting with colleagues and concentrating on life outside the work place. They are reasonably happy with their lot and not at all ambitious.
Out of that workforce there will be some who will have a "dream" or ideas of a different kind of life but think it would be impossible to achieve, so do nothing about it.
They may feel it is too risky, they don`t have the right education or enough finance, or they feel their idea would fail.
However, there will be some who will take the plunge and follow that dream.
It is an interesting fact that many of the extremely wealthy, successful and fulfilled business and entrepreneurial people seem to share many common characteristics.
Few of them began with a wealthy or even a successful educational background.
Often sons and daughters have followed pathways which have been mapped out by parents who thought they were offering good advice for their child`s future, but they have never settled into that role.
Some will have experienced all manner of hardships and barriers.
There may be negative opinions and many hurdles to overcome, but running through it all is an end goal and a belief in that goal.
It is a burning passion and self belief that the goal can be achieved despite obstacles.
It entails taking risks and often huge risks. It may mean other family members or colleagues showing huge faith and trust with often financial input or the opposite by experiencing financial hardship.
Important to all of this is mind set. It has to be positive, regardless and indeed in spite of the negative thoughts and voices which will undoubtedly creep in.
Thoughts are just a passing collection of images which are generally unfounded but put there by the way things are viewed, listened to and experienced.
If allowed to multiply and take root, thoughts can manifest themselves in emotions which then influence how things are dealt with. This can be negative or positive.
A simple example is the act of giving praise for an assessment.. Good praise will establish positive thoughts which will then generate good and happy emotions. At a stroke these can be reversed by a bad criticism.
This can all happen within a matter of minutes without the person actually doing anything.
A well adjusted mind set will accept the good praise as a mark of encouragement and also accept the bad assessment as meaningful criticism which can be viewed as helpful advice going forward. A less well adjusted mindset will accept the good praise and the emotional feed back but may be quite devastated by the bad assessment. It may be seen as failure or it was the fault of the assessor or content of assessment. The person may just give up.
Successful people set and recognize their goal, practice visualizing it, acting as if they already have it, and give gratitude for it.
The phrase "be careful what you wish for" is a direct reference to having a goal and working towards it.
Everything that we use has come from a decision made by someone somewhere who took a particular direction.
Even something like home grown vegetables are there because someone made the decision to get the seeds and plant them. A direction was taken to look after them as the end goal was to have home grown vegetables.
The focus is on the goal. Not necessarily the way to get there. We will all be familiar with the way to deal with something which appears too challenging and insurmountable.
Divide it up into manageable pieces and the problem is solved.
This philosophy may sound both simple and complicated at the same time, but it is a recipe which works, and at a time when the world is crying out for direction, now is a great time to set these goals and go for them!
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