It’s been said that there’s three types of people in the world. One group makes things happen. Another group watches things happen. The vast majority of us stand back and say, “what just happened?”
Everybody has the same basic needs. We want food, shelter, stuff, companionship. These are very vague descriptions. The pursuit of them makes up the human condition.
This is why economics is described as the “dismal science.” There’s a limited amount of “stuff’ in the world, but we each have an unlimited amount of wants, needs, and desires.
Naturally, if we sit around waiting for our desires to be dropped into our laps from some kind god in the sky, we’re gonna be waiting a long time.
At some point, we’ve got to get out there and get some.
Of course, almost all of us do that. We go to work, hang out in bars, spend time on leisure activities. All of which is trying to get one of our genetically programmed needs met.
However, most of us go through life “unconscious.” Now, I don’t mean we’re walking around like a brain starved zombie.
But most of us walk into a situation without a very clear intention. Most of the time, our intention is to “hopefully” get some good stuff and “hopefully” avoid the bad stuff.
When something unexpected happens, we react in surprise, without much effectiveness.
If you’re a single guy, and you’ve ever unexpectedly run into a gorgeous woman, you know what I’m talking about.
You kick yourself after the fact, thinking that ANYTHING would have been better than just staring at her saying, “um..I….wow..uh…OK….”
No matter who you are, or what stage you’re at in life, you know what I mean. You see something that could have been a golden opportunity had you only handled it better.
Or something turns into a huge problem, when it could have been a minor incident had you said or done something differently.
Think about this: You’re going Christmas shopping for three people. You’ve got a couple hundred bucks in your pocket. Except you’ve no idea what to buy. You’ll end up spending hours at the mall, hemming and hawing over every single thing you “think” they might want. Then as soon as you buy something, you’ll see something else, and think, “hmm, maybe I should return this and get that instead…”
Sound familiar?
On the other hand, what if you put some thought in what you were going to get for each person. You started out with the things they like, and the things you’ve seen them enjoy in the past. You choose a gift based on their personality you KNOW they’ll enjoy.
Think your time at the mall would be a lot easier, a lot more focused, and a lot less painful? Heck, you’d even have time to check out a movie.
Life, you see, is like the mall. Filled up with TONS of options. You can either go into it with only a vague idea of what you want, or you can spend some time beforehand coming up with EXACTLY what you want.
Which do you think is better?
Once you GET WHAT YOU WANT, you’ll have plenty of time, money and energy left over to have fun.