by: guide4wdw – Collin
What’s Next? – A Real Question But One That Ultimately Never Goes Away
It’s rare that a day goes by in life that I don’t think about the future and the inevitable reality that 5 years from now I could be like the vast majority of society working a job that I hate, paying bills, and living life for the weekends.
Honestly, that potential reality is one of my greatest fears in life and I’m not entirely sure why. There’s nothing wrong with wanting that “white picket fence” life, but I honestly don’t want to live that life in any way shape or form. To be quite honest, I don’t even know why I’m sharing this tonight, but for some reason or another it felt like something somebody, somewhere, needed to hear. It may just be one of those things I needed to get on paper and think through in my own mind and if by chance it helps someone else along the way that’s the perfect culmination of end results.
In life, so many of us spend our entire lives trying to do “the right thing” but doing the right thing isn’t always the best thing. I’m a business student and hear the words being “preached” every day reiterating that you want to get a degree to someday find yourself in a corporate role of your dreams with this grand scale expectation of making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. When I started college, I inevitably bought into that expectation and goal for life, but when the real world started to set in I realized that there’s more to life that a perfect job. You see, to me you could have any high paying dream job in the world and you can push each day to be the very best you can be and to outperform everyone in your field of expertise but the reality of life is that happiness is far more that any high paying job or dream salary. Instead, I choose to believe that happiness is driven by finding a way to do what you love and love what you do each and every day. For those on the outside looking in that seems like a pursuit of the impossible, but I like to call it chasing a dream.
We’re so conditioned to take that next step and trudge through every day in pursuit of the perfect and ideal situation in life that slowly but surely our own personal goals and passions in life tend to fall away as life goes on.
That single sentence is a reality I dread more that just about anything else because if you’re striving for a goal that doesn’t come from your own thoughts and desires in life but rather somebody elses, you’re wasting 5 out of 7 days of every single week. You can call me an idealist or a hopeful optimist or whatever title you want to put on me, but the reality of life is that if you slave through the week hating your life you’re missing out 71% of life. That’s a scary number.
I don’t share all of this to be super negative but rather to hopefully encourage someone to try something new and make the first step towards enjoying every minute in life. In my own life, I have absolutely no idea “what’s next.” In a perfect world I’d find a way to turn what I love into what I do every single day. To me an ideal job would be doing exactly this every single day. I love writing about the Disney parks and resorts and if I could find a way to make covering the parks my real world job, I’d do anything to make it a reality. I strive towards that goal every single day, but in all reality I doubt it will ever become a feasible job. Is that going to stop me from trying? Not in the slightest. I share this not because it’s real and authentic but rather because I hope it helps just one person get out of their own way to find something in life that they enjoy and can take the first step towards making their ideal life a reality.
Ask yourself one question. “What does my perfect day look like?” If the answer to that question isn’t “the life I lived today” why aren’t you working to make your “perfect day” every single day of your life? Everyone has their own reasons and I have a massive list of all of my own reasons why my dream isn’t my reality at the moment, but it never changes the fact that there’s more to life that punching a clock and cashing a pay check.
Do I know what’s next in life or what the next step is in my journey? Not in any way shape or form, and truthfully it’s probably more unclear now that it’s ever been in the past. I wake up each day though with one goal in the back of my mind, “make the most of every minute.” I’ll be the first to admit that I am not the perfect example of this. I get discouraged more days that not, but it’s always there in the back of my mind and has stuck with me in a shockingly pronounced way over the last few years. Nothing is guaranteed in life. We are not guaranteed tomorrow and we never know what life holds so make the most of every moment you have. Life is so much more that waking up, going to work, coming home, and doing the same thing the next day. Find a way to take the first step towards making your dream a reality. If I could find a way to share that reality with people every day while living my dream of doing what I love and loving what I do every single day, that would be the “ideal” life. You can change somebodies life by encouraging them to take that first step and I believe that because I’m living proof.
Nearly three years ago, this site didn’t exist (I wouldn’t have believed you if you would have told me I’d be doing this right now), I was an awkward college kid (some things never change), and I was pushed by a distant friend to try something new. That single “push” turned a book into a website, and perhaps some of the greatest experiences I’ve had in life. I’ve met people that I can genuinely call friends today that I never knew 3 years ago, and they are the people that encourage me every single day and I’m thatkful for every single day. They’re the people you can share anything with without judgement and the people that you really want in your life. I’m far from where I want to be but I wouldn’t trade the journey for anything.
I know so many people reading this are thinking, I’d love to try something new, or I’d love to have done that ten years ago and it’s easy for you to say that at 22, but that’s not what any of this is all about. It’s never too late to find a way to wake up happy and doing what you love every single day. You just have to start taking steps towards your dream and forget what other people think about you along the way. At the end of the day, when you are loving life it doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks.
I know this post wasn’t Disney related, but to me these are some of the important things that I like to share. They won’t drive massive amounts of page views, they wont be backed heavily by an advertiser, and they wont help you book your dream vacation, but I hope they share a dose of perspective on life in a way that you may have overlooked along the way.
Long story made short — make the most of every day, find a way to love what you do, and never forget to find a little piece of happiness in every day of your life. Sometimes that happiness is hard to find (trust me, I know that feeling all too well), but there’s something to be happy about in life every single day and a blessing to be appreciative of even on the very worst of days.
