How the Destination Helps You to Choose the Path
It is a subject most of try to avoid. You rarely purposefully think about it. You often dodge the topic when it comes up in conversation. Or if you happen to read something about it you quickly move on. You would prefer that it be something you never have to consider.
While it a subject that you don’t enjoy thinking about, it can be critical to living a better story.
That subject is the ending of your story.
The problem is that if you do not know where you want to go, then you will never make the hard choices you need to make in order to get there.
Knowing where you want to end up, helps you choose how to get there.
photo by Brian Koprowski (creative commons license)
Too often decisions are made without much thought beyond how the outcome affects today or tomorrow or next year.
Too often decisions are made primarily with feeling or desire, and not enough with the intention of a well-lived story.
Too often decisions are made based on what we want now and not what we want later.
Bad Stories Happen to Good People
Do you know someone who is in the middle of a story that nobody would want? They never wanted their life to head in that direction, but somehow it did. They never meant to end up where they are, but now it feels next to impossible to get out.
These types of stories do not happen over night. They are not the result of one bad decision. They happen as an accumulation of bad decisions. They are the result of choices made, whether intentional or note, over time.
A bad or painful or unwanted story will happen to anyone who does not choose to live a better one.
The Good News
The good news is today is not too late. A step in the right direction now is also a step away from the wrong direction.
In order to make better choices, however, you first have to know where you want to go.
If you choose a story of being fit and healthy, then choosing to exercising becomes easier. And choosing to not eat dessert clearer. And over time, you will get there.
If you set before yourself the goal of being debt-free, then putting a set amount into your savings each month and not buying a new car become the easy choice.
If you decide to live the kind of story where you are a friend to many, then you will more and more choose to reach out to others. To give of your time and money. To give of yourself.
If you choose a story that is about love, selfless, sacrificing, giving love, then everything will change.
No matter the story you want, the best time to start on it is today.
A Few Questions to Consider
- Do you like the direction you are headed?
- If you keep going down this road, where will you end up?
- What will people say about you when you die?
- What is one thing can you change about your life today to make the ending of your story better?
