What Path Will You Choose?
There’s never been a better time to chase your dreams. And yet, there’s never been a worse one to squander it all.
The scale of resources we have at our disposal today were unimaginable 50 years ago. Access to knowledge has never been easier. Yet we live in a world rife with disinformation and conspiracies.
That’s the dichotomy of life isn’t it? What elevates us often times becomes our achilles heel as well. The world is giving us an opportunity to walk the path of greatness. Yet it’s also unleashed a million distractions as killer mines along the way. As they say, nothing worthwhile comes without it’s share of challenges. And lack of focus is the biggest of them all in the way of our dreams becoming a reality.
The question is what is killing our focus???
I think there are just way too many options leading to an analysis paralysis. Our brain can’t handle the massive information overdose. Ultimately all that these these choices do is create anxiety and slow us down.
Take career options as an example. There are now countless avenues for money making (which is great). There are so many side hustles/full time careers where barriers to entry are really low. Just list down the top 5 that come to your mind and run a web search. You will instantly find amazing success stories. And of course add to them also those carefully curated, glittery ones without any context. The ones that are always tempting you to drop everything and aim for the grass that appears greener.
Reality is that too many choices does lead to the desire for instant gratification as well. We all want to choose the one with the immediate fix, the that one that provides the path to quick money. The only issue is there’s no such thing as quick money except for one of those ponzi schemes. Short cuts are nothing but a fantasy of a troubled mind that struggles to focus.
To focus on what truly matters is being blind to what doesn’t. There’s a limited amount of time we have in this life. And life is all about a game of choices. The sooner you learn to limit your choices to those that matter, easier you make it for yourself to find meaningful progress. It’s like food. There’s only so much you can consume. Cut out the junk options, stick to the clean ones. The thing to remember is each time we say ‘Yes’ to an option in life, we are saying ‘No’ to another. You need to choose your path. You can’t just keep wandering around (there’s a time for that but it can’t be perpetual).
To really understand what matters to you requires you to understand yourself first. It requires some soul searching. What is your value system? What is it that you can do that will truly align you with who you are? If the aim in life is contentment and happiness, then you must follow the path of alignment. You need to let your burning desire and passion guide you on it. Because without passion, there’s no fulfilment. You absolutely need to be in love with what you want to do to become great at it.
There’s another way to look at it. Imagine yourself 10, 20, 30 years later in life. Imagine your future self. Imagine what path would be the most fulfilling to your future self after you’ve come towards the end of your journey. The answer to me lies there. It’s always about long term fulfilment over short term glory.
There were passionate humans that changed the course of our history centuries ago with their philosophies. And there are passionate humans who are changing the course of the modern age with their ideas. One thing they all have in common is the absolute focus on their obsession that becomes their mission. They don’t venture out looking for quick bucks. Money follows but they’re just happily in love with their path, without a worry about the end point.
The question is what path will you choose?