The following is an individual’s opinion and reflection to try and answer the question with which every man, woman and child struggle to throughout their life: what the fuck am I doing, and why? You see, my answer to this may vary slightly day to day depending on a multitude of things like if I’m tired, hungry, sad, just got laid, or drunk. However, the deviation in any of these conditions will be marginal, and the only thing that is required for me to answer is an ounce of rationality. My answer revolves around a few basic ideas. The first, albeit cliché, is that life is in fact a journey from point A (birth) to point B (death). The second is that there is one action at any moment in time that will make me happiest, most satisfied, and most complete. The third, I am either playing an active or passive role in the forging of my journey. Tying these three ideas together is the old Chinese proverb “know thy self”, and honestly I have not ever heard anything more valuable.
The journey of life is much like a hike through a mountainous trail, only that it is a very very long mountainous trail, and the mountain changes gradation at either extreme rate, oh the weather during this hike changes drastically too, but, alas it is a hike from A to B. Knowing myself is what I relate to the compass on said hike. It points you the right direction. Once you set a direction, you can start to plan a path. During the journey of life, this path is planned by goals. The real importance is to set a wide scope of goals so that in almost every scenario of life I will know at least what direction I would want to head in. A good way to do this might be to list goals that I want to reach for the upcoming day/week, goals I would like to reach on a daily/weekly basis, and then carry the same thought onto a monthly and yearly scale with some “landmark” goals down the road (i.e. owning a house or getting a particular job). Compiling these goals will help to formulate a tangible path for me to follow.
The path that I determine not only helps to set direction in my life, but more importantly defines the type of individual I am. Knowing what I want is vital towards unraveling the relationship I have with myself. It is the summation of choices and relationships I choose and want to have that seems to be the outward projection of who I am on the inside. Now it is of course obvious to draw this conclusion, but what it means is more than it sounds. We all know that there is some type of approval process happening in our minds before any type of action is taken, but sometimes the process is skewed. Temptations may lead me to do, say or act something that I would disagree with at a later time. This is not an outward projection of myself, but rather an inward stipulation from an outside source. This is exactly where deviation from my chosen path occurs. Relating this back to the metaphor, this is when I am completely fucking lost in the middle of the woods. So, it would be prudent to stop, reflect about how I got to where I am, and then…pull out the damned compass!
So it is my thought that the dedication of direction and goals will provide the keys to ultimate happiness. As important as accomplishment of my goals is, it is just as important to maintain a positive optimistic outlook in all situations without disregarding any actual consequences of action. This means; what happened is in the past but what will happen is yet to be determined. I can only make a situation better or worse, and optimism is making a commitment to a better future. To make this happen, determination is required to do what I want to do and walk down my path in life.
(One day this will be a very long well thought out and put together essay, and that my friends is a goal)