Changing lanes and Twisting Turns

Douglas Clark
-Head writer, The Inspiration Engine

What do you do when life makes you change directions?  We all have plans, or at least we should.  Dreams and goals motivate us and drive us forward; otherwise we’d all be sitting on the couch watching TV.  And if we’re smart, we take that motivation fostered by our dreams and goals and work toward success.  Sometimes it takes a lifetime to achieve, and sometimes we never quite actually get there, but part of the value of the whole endeavor is the experience we gain along the way.  But what happens when those dreams and goals become unattainable?  What if after you’ve put forth so much effort, time, and energy you realize it will never happen? 

You have to change lanes.  The old saying is ‘life’s a journey, not a destination’ but it’s really easy to use the analogy of a life being like a highway.  Sometimes, while driving down that highway of life, you have to change lanes just to keep going.  It might be unpleasant, and it might certainly be not what you wanted, but changing direction, focus, your goal, you might just realize you were headed in the wrong direction all that time before.  My greatest fear is that I won’t live up to my potential.  It bothers me sometimes and I worry that my choices have all been wrong and I’m wasting my time in life.  But then there are some shining examples in my life of greatness (not trying to toot my own horn here) and I realize that it isn’t all bad, some of it is pretty great. 

But how do we know what direct to take if our purpose in life is now different, changed or even gone?  That can be a hard question to ask and answer.  Remember that your life is the sum of all your experiences.  If you take a look at them and realize those experiences are negative, it’s time to reevaluate yourself, your choices and your motivations.  That new path could finally lead you to a more positive life.  If your experiences are overwhelmingly positive, yet you feel lost because your goals are now unattainable, remember that you are the master of your own life.  You can choose a new path, one that matters to you, has meaning and depth.  Now it might take a while for that path to reveal itself, but keeping an open mind is an absolute necessity. 

If you’re not paying attention to exit signs, you might just blow past your next great adventure without even realizing it!

Thanks for reading!

Perseverance Pays Off

What keeps you going?  How do you go on when you know it may never get any better than this? 

Hope.  As corny as that sounds, it’s true.  It’s very rare that you find a person who’s life is absolutely nothing but despair, or total happiness.  Life has a way of fluctuating and changing without you even lifting a finger to help it.  But if you don’t even try to direct it on a course that you can live with, it will become oppressive.  That attempt at driving your life forward can be hard, but it can also be rewarding. 

Those clichés about ‘giving it your all’ or ‘never giving up’ and the like are clichés because people have used those thoughts and ideas to persist, strive, endure.  The mere act of living through hard times is an act of perseverance.  Now, I’m not talking about continuing on a path you know will lead to failure.  I’m not suggesting that you take on an endeavor you know to be fool-hearty and just shlog through hoping it will all work out in the end.  No, what I’m talking about is staying focused on your dreams, accepting your limitations, learning to deal with them and exploring new ways to achieve your goals. 

Remember, life can and does change if you change the way you look at it.  Striving for the ideal is motivational, comparing your success to the past is logical, and driving yourself to not give in to despair will help in your longevity.  Perseverance isn’t just about not giving up, it’s about doing better with what you have, even if what you have is less than yesterday.  Tomorrow can be better, you just have to give it your all.

  

You gotta believe you’re awesome to Be awesome.

Dreaming Should Lead To Doing

I sometimes let my imagination run wild.  To some that’s a good thing; to some that’s a bad thing.  There are times when letting your mind wander to far off places is perfectly fine, healthy even.  But there are also times when staying focused and getting the job done is just as important.  You’ve probably heard the old saying “you’ve got your head in the clouds” or “all work and no play makes you a dull person”, well if you’ve ever heard those being applied to yourself, you’ve probably taken the dreaming or doing way too far.

It’s all about balance (aren’t most things…?).  There are times when I know I should be Doing something, working hard at finishing a task or a goal I’ve set for myself.  An excellent point is my writing.  For years I’ve written short stories and dreamed of being a published author.  But I never submitted anything.  Dreaming far outweighed the Doing in that case.  So finally, I submitted several of my stories because it became important to have that balance between Dreaming and Doing.  I felt a sense of accomplishment I could never have gotten by just writing alone.  But see, that’s where the balance comes from.  Experiencing both is far more rewarding and enriching than either on its own.

I say, let your imagination run wild, but keep your nose to the grind stone.  They both have their merits, you just need to balance them out.   Case in point, in my effort to be artistic and creative, but also productive, I designed a shirt that I very much like.  Check it out on this link:

  (   Mystic Face  )

If you’re lacking inspiration, concentrate on being imaginative, when the spark hits you let it flow.  Just remember to make time to actually Do the work involved in making your dream a reality too.  Trust me, it will be worth it.