The difference between great people and
everyone else is that great people create their lives
actively, while everyone else is created by their
lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them
next. The difference between the two is the
difference between living fully and just existing.
-- Michael E. Gerber
Big events happen in our lives that throw us off
course. Sometimes those are happy events – a new
love, a chance meeting that turns into a career
opportunity, a windfall of cash. Sometimes those are
tragedies – a divorce, a death in the family, a job
loss. When the big events happen, it’s
understandable that you may get pulled away from
your dream, and many times you have to deal with
the side trip before you can get back on course.
Sometimes those big events change your life so
substantially that you never get back to the original
plan.
There are also a million small events that sidetrack
us. A phone call interrupts the project we need to
finish. A friend drops by and convinces us we need
to go get a cup of coffee. We are recruited for a
volunteer job that will take a significant amount of
our time.
Making Conscious Choices
No matter the size of the event, we need to be
aware of the fact that we are pulling away from the
dream. Here’s the tricky part. When these events
happen, if you can make a conscious, measured
decision, you will provide yourself with a feeling of
control over your life and probably make a better
choice as well.
Since I started my own business, the services I offer
have changed. I have found that I enjoy the training
and writing a great deal more than the graphic
design, and I can make considerably more money
when I focus on the training and writing. My goal
when I started the business was to become a
graphic design studio with several employees. As the
business grew, I was given more opportunities to do
presentations and training. They seemed to fall in
my lap. I reassessed my direction and made a
conscious choice to change the direction of my
business and focus my energy on the things I love to
do.
A friend of mine who is totally blind believes that we
live many lives and that he chose to be blind in this
lifetime as a learning experience. He has lived his life
to the fullest. He has surfed and bicycled, mows his
own grass and installs his own ceiling fans. (I don’t
know how he does this, but playing with anything
electrical makes me nervous.) He plays guitar and
years ago was an opening act for the Beach Boys. I
don’t know whether he is right about choosing the
blindness. I just know that he feels (and therefore
acts) much more empowered than most of the people
I know.
One Thing We Can Control
When I teach Professional Development, I impress on
my students that there are things in our lives
that seem to be out of our control. There is one
thing, however, that we always have control over –
the way we choose to react to any situation. We
can do it with grace and style or we can rant and
complain. We can make people feel elevated or we
can make them feel diminished.
When a bypass on our life journey appears, we can
choose to take it or we can stay on the original
route. Making that decision, rather than just
following the path of least resistance, is what living
your dream, is truly all about.
