Like many people, I
was looking towards the new year with hope and expectation. Especially after the tumultuous year we had, 2018 has got to be better. I often try to
take an optimistic perspective on life, however, in the past, that hasn’t
always been coupled with realism. What I mean to say is that I have been guilty
of making many new year resolutions that don’t last beyond the first couple
weeks. No doubt you know what I am talking about. Over the years though,
through many failed attempts and from receiving lessons from others, I have
better learned how to effectively set new changes in my life, at any point in
my life. I’ll admit there is a lot more that I could still learn! But, hey,
that’s what life is about.
At the end of 2017 I
came across a quote from a book I was reading called Wild At Heart by
John Eldredge. “Don’t ask yourself what the
world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive, because what the world
needs are men who have come alive.” It wasn’t necessarily a new message for me
but I knew it was what I needed to hear at the moment. I’d like to think that I
have experienced what it means to “come alive” before in my life. The most
impactful time was when I joined a gap-year program called Generation Peace
Academy. Usually a one year program, I ended up staying for three years. I
chose to do this because there I was given a sense of purpose and incredible
opportunities to grow that I hadn’t been exposed to before.
When
I compared that time to now, well... I didn’t feel as alive. To give you an
idea of what my day-to-day life is like now I’d describe it as sitting. I sit
during my commute to university in the city. I sit during the lectures of my
first-year engineering courses. I sit while I study and do homework. Heck,
right now I’m sitting here writing this blog.
I
know I just painted a pretty plain, and definitely unhealthy, picture but I
assure you that was mostly to be funny. There is a lot of color in my life
right now too. I enjoy learning new things at school, even if the quantity is
more than I would prefer, and I’ve met some really cool people there. There’s
time for me to read interesting and inspiring books written about the lives of
real people while I travel to and from school. Some of my good friends and I
got a gym membership for the past two months, and it feels great to be getting
back into shape. There are people I know personally who are offering their time
and effort to push forward a movement that will change this world, and they
give me hope. I have an amazing family I am so proud of. The list can go on.
When
I can really stop and think about it sometimes there is not much more that I could want,
and definitely need, except I do want more from myself. I'm tired of "sitting". I want to be one of
those men that the world needs, a man who has come alive.
So
time to answer that question, why the blog?
I
believe self-reflection is a very important activity to maintain a healthy mind
and spirit. We are people who are constantly hungry for new experiences but the
reality is that many of us aren’t into digesting these experiences as much.
Digesting as in figuring out what did that experience/interaction show me about
myself or about life, how can I use this experience to progress or to grow,
etc. I have filled several journals myself in the past few years but I
definitely have been inconsistent at times. These last six months were
definitely a time like that. I don’t want math to be the only thing I’m
learning right now; I want to catch all the little experiences life has to
offer and I think blogging will be a new and exciting way for me to do that.
Another
big reason is that I wanted a place where I could focus on formulating and
clarifying my opinions and beliefs. I watched a video recently where they were
asking people various questions that sparked their strong opinions, but when
these people were asked to explain why they thought that way many couldn’t and
actually realized that their opinion or belief perhaps wasn’t that strong. I
have had the experience myself. It can leave you feeling confused or even
frustrated. What I have learned is that it takes practice to learn how to share
about ourselves and the things we are interested in and care about. So for me
blogging will be part of my practice.
The
last reason I’ll mention relates to the one above and it is based on a belief
of mine: every person has a unique beauty and goodness to bring to this world.
Therefore, learning how to share what we know is not just something we could
do, actually it is something we should do. In one way or another, we will be in
the position of a teacher or mentor to someone at some point of our lives. Of
course I’m talking about the main one, being a parent, but even you can
experience this in your career or among your friends. The bottom line is that
there will be people in our lives who need us, the things that only we uniquely
can offer, and, even further, the world will need each one of us to become the
whole and united place it was meant to be. It is a small hope of mine that
through expressing myself here I can somehow offer anyone reading inspiration,
new insight or simply bring a smile to their face.
Now,
am I scared to take this step? You bet. But am I excited? Even more so. I was
once told that that is precisely how your goals should make you feel. A mix
between fear and anticipation. It is here on the edge of uncertainty and faith
that I have been told we can truly experience the feeling of being alive. So
that is where I’m going to try and stand.
I
want to invite you to that place as well. Even if you didn’t make any new plans
for yourself at new year, that's fine. The year is new and so is
every day. Go ahead and take a step in trying something new, that one thing you know you really want to do.
You’ve got this.
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