When I was growing up I loved to read. It was one of my healthier forms of escapism. One of my favorite books was Choose Your Own Adventure Books. I was the main character and the choices I made changed the outcome. My choices made a difference and could really change how the story ended.
I lived in sci-fi and fantasy genre books. I would even read up to certain plot points and then let my imagination take over and put the book aside and I would ”Choose my own adventure”. Sometimes the books would go right where I imagined them to.
What this did for me in real life was allow me to think through my actions or as they say it allowed me to play the tape though I can create a potential future in my mind and make a list of action items along the way so that I have a clear plan of how to get there.
I know that I need to have and work towards goals to progress in life. Earl Nightingale cites success as “A progressive realization of a worthy ideal”. He explains further, “A success is anyone who is realizing a worthy predetermined ideal because that’s what he or she decided to do … deliberately.”
We must consciously work toward goals and the goals we choose and the actions we take will help shape the direction of our lives. We can’t imagine that if we launched a boat into the harbor with no captain or crew it would go far. It needs guidance and action to go anywhere. I have been the empty vessel and all I did was go in circles smashing into and wrecking other people’s boats.
We don’t need to live like that today, but you can, it is your choice.