I was an awkward kid, shy and I kept to myself. I stuttered.
My room was my haven and my imagination was my companion. And fear was my jail.
High school was a blur of just getting by. A month after graduation, I found myself in boot camp with the United States Navy. I was eighteen years in age and about fourteen years in maturity.
To this day, I have no idea what led to my enlistment. There is no memory of the decision. For whatever reason, skinny and shy and still a stutterer, I had decided to leave my room and move forward.
I followed the path the Navy gave me. I spent the next six years moving from place to place. My life had become all about momentum. It was auto-pilot.
No dreams. No goals. No motivation.
Just days piled upon days.
I started taking classes at the local junior college during my last year in the Navy. It wasn’t part of an objective or a plan. It was just more momentum. I worked with a guy who was taking classes, so I figured I would take them as well.
I enjoyed the classes so I just kept taking them. I transferred to a four-year university and took classes at night while working a full-time job. I eventually graduated.
There has been so much between then and now. Several jobs and two careers. Many relationships. A marriage and a divorce and two amazing kids.
I am now on the doorstep of my fifty-fifth birthday, and I find myself looking back and wondering why I didn’t achieve more. I’m proud of a lot of what I have done but I know there could have been more.
It was right there, but I kept losing it because I didn’t have the focus and the stamina. Once again, I was just existing.
Days piled upon days.
Living this way is just buying lottery tickets. Sometimes you win a few dollars and yes you maybe win a jackpot, but you are more likely to get nothing.
Days piled upon days.
It’s never too early or too late to take control. Create a plan and focus on what you want your life to be about. Define your WHY.
And then work that plan.
If you want a promotion at work, build and work that plan.
If you want to have a successful relationship, build and work that plan.
If you want to open a business, build and work that plan.
Whatever you want from life is possible, but you have to take charge. You have to have focus and you have to have a plan and you have to work.
Days piled upon days.
Believe in you and then work for you. That is how everything happens and where everything comes from. From you and by you.
That was a moving piece of writing from the heart. Thanks for sharing. It helped me.