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Monday
Motivation
3/1/2004 |
You have the power to steer your life
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As I come across ideas for Monday Motivation topics, I tend to write them down -- anywhere.
I was cleaning off my desk earlier this week -- you know, a clean desk is a sign of a sick mind -- when I came across a small slip of paper, torn from a Dilbert calendar from last year.
"You have the power to steer your life," it said.
I don't remember where the phrase had been taken from. I read a great deal of information, and when I come across quotes, topics, or new facts that I think may be of some interest, I write them down, knowing they will surface again someday.
Well, anyway, I came across this positive statement, and it hit me in the face like a ton of bricks.
You know, sometimes, it seems as if we are being swept along on the tides of life. Even when we have the best of intentions, the firmest of goals, and the most positive of outlooks, we get pushed and pulled along, until something comes along to put us back on course.
The sad thing is that often, we never find the course again.
Like a 10-year-old boy, drifting down a lazy river in an "inner tube," it's so easy to be lulled to sleep by the daily grind -- the gentle routine of work, family, and various "reality" shows on television.
It's this "drifting" that is one of the great enemies of our lives.
As human beings, we have the power to determine our destiny. We have the chance to make our lives our own. We have the right, the power, even the responsibility to uncover our hidden secret strengths, find a worthy goal and direction for our life, and take charge of our own course as we follow the streams and rivers of life.
When I was a kid, I would throw sticks in the creek that ran near our house. We'd follow those sticks through their various twists and turns, and marvel at the seeming randomness of their trajectories.
As people, though, we have the right to determine our course.
Each day, hundreds of gigantic tanker ships, cargo freighters, aircraft carriers, battleships, cruise lines, and tugboats traverse through the water. In each case, they are steered toward a destination. A course is set, a wheel is turned, a rudder moves, and the ship shifts direction.
Given enough time, and a correct heading, the ship will eventually sail into port -- all the result of that heading, that steering, and that rudder.
In our lives, too many of us drift aimlessly along, following every little ripple, every little current, knocking off of each stone in our path, never really gaining control of our course or our destination.
I've been there. I know how it is to wander aimlessly through life. It's not pretty. It's not nice.
But it's easy to do.
Just as the captain determines his or her course before setting sail, and then makes corrections along the way, each of us has the ability to set, and then steer, according to our own course, gaining our destination in time.
There may be odd currents, obstacles, or troubles along the way, but when we're in control of the helm, we can choose to steer around those obstacles, not just bounce off each one of them in turn.
I have the power to steer my life -- and you do too!
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