Your choice: more of this, or something way better.

One lesson my 9th grade English teacher taught me that I’ll never forget:

Perhaps it was one of those moments that the wisdom of older people implore them to do - to “inspire-scare” these teenagers into being more serious about the choices they were making in their lives. Out of that afternoon’s reverie, I heard him say “...like my cousin, who moved to California, telling us that he’ll be a great actor one day. He left everything behind. And he’s still out there, after 10-15 years, as a bartender wiping the counter, waiting for his big break. And he’ll still be there after another 20 years, doing nothing but dreaming his life away…”

I’m guessing if we really took a deep look at how many stories just like this one are stored somewhere deep in our hippocampus, we’d have a grand library that could fill all of the world’s oceans. It’s deeply ingrained in our culture to be “practical” and follow the beaten path.

But the beaten path no longer leads to riches. You drag yourself to your computer to face the new fire that has taken place in your department. The mountain of emails you’ve got to go through every day because it’s your job to do so. Doing everything you’re supposed to do but still feeling lost and unsatisfied with where your life is headed. And to boot, your salary can barely support the lifestyle it once used to promise.

In my humble opinion, you’ve got a choice: more of this, or something way better.

Because yes, perhaps there are many who make the trek to a shiny new personal era and never meet success exactly as they planned to see it through. But one thing’s for sure - when you travel with the intention to meet success, develop the emotional resilience against any setback, relentlessly and with conviction move toward your goal… there is no doubt you will meet it.

The fear of falling flat on your face when you veer away from the usual and accepted is to be expected. But if you had the skill to get back up on your feet with your self-respect and dignity intact, what else is there to stop you?