When it comes to your life story, you make the decisions. Whether it’s choosing a college, major, profession, or spouse, you have the final say. If you want to take control of your future, you must realize that you can manipulate your own reality to fit your most intimate hopes and dreams. Bend the world around you to fit your hopes and dreams. Realize that you are the driver of this vehicle known as life. You are not a passenger and you do not have to wait until the next stop. You can take this thing with you wherever you go.
Here are five ways to help you light up your future and take control of your life:
1. Do not forget yesterday, reflect on tomorrow, but fully live today, every day.
You are in real time control of your own destiny. Don’t get caught up in worrying too much about what happened before, and don’t overload yourself by projecting plans too far into the future. Live in the now and you will have more control of your future.
2. Network
Don’t go through life fighting battles alone. Find allies. Create genuine relationships based on positive and healthy exchanges. Don’t selfishly seek help. Be willing to give up part of yourself in exchange for the help of others.
3. Educate yourself and never stop learning.
Every personal perspective in this world is unique. At one point, the dumbest person around you still knows at least one thing that you still don’t understand. Be humble about your educational development. Be open to new ideas and practices. Recognize that learning never stops. Keep the door of your mind open at all times.
4. Have frequent discussions with someone who has a different worldview and belief system than you.
Like-minded people tend to gravitate to each other. That is natural and to be expected. If you want to have a bright future in this world, you must feel comfortable dealing with people who share different points of view. If you are a liberal hippie, who only hangs out with other hippies, how are you going to react when your first boss is a staunch conservative who wears his politics on his sleeve? Similarly, if you are the president of the local Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) branch, you should seek different perspectives to experiment with. Associating only with people who share your beliefs is shortsighted. In life, you will be expected to constantly coexist with different perspectives, so make sure you are willing and able to do so.
5. Learn to let things slide.
Whenever you feel completely overwhelmed, as if the odds are unfairly against you, think about balance. Ask any physicist and he or she will tell you that the universe, from astronomical scales to subatomic levels, is a great balancing act. Balance is critical to the existence of anything from planets to people to particles. Whenever you feel like you’ve hit a lucky streak, remember how things balance out and find strength in the knowledge that balance holds the universe together. Trust in the fact that everything will work out.
The future is what you do with it. You are in full control of your life, regardless of past or future obligations you may have. Trust in your ability to manipulate reality as you see fit. Create the conditions you want it to exist under and adjust them when necessary. The more determined you live, the brighter your future will be.
