Ten Principles of Living your Best Life Now - Essay Example

Ten Principles of Living Your Best Life Now Principle Ignore the Future, Deal with the Present Humans, being the only species possessing the faculty of intellect for thinking, often tend to focus on the future at the cost of neglecting the present. This tendency deprives them from knowing the crucial role of the present in shaping their future. I know many people who, in a bid to make the future of their children bright, amass wealth so that their children will have good homes and all the material possessions that will guarantee their welfare in the days to come. They do not buy good books or designer clothes for their children, on the pretext that one should not waste money on luxury and save for the future. They travel in buses instead of luxury cars, despite having the resources to afford them. They do not travel to exquisite lands, do not eat out in elegant diners and they do not donate a dime in charity. They ultimately die, leaving acres of land for the children to claim and fight over; bank balances for them to kill for. Thus, people in a bid to make future bright, are rendering the present bleak. On the other hand, I know of people who earn money and spend it lavishly on the children. They buy them books on various subjects, clothes of a wide array, and toys of a diverse range. They take their children to faraway lands, in yachts and cruise ships; lodge them in suites, exposing them to different cultures, showing them the wonders of life. They spend on charity, teaching their children the pleasure in sharing. Their children draw from experience, become independent, learn to love and share and lead happy lives without fighting for wealth. Similarly, most of the people make big plans about the future and in the process fail to recognize the importance of the immediate future in shaping the long term future. For example, it may be the aspiration of parents to send a child to medical school when he or she grows up. Thus, the parents keep telling the child that he or she will become a doctor in the future without any consideration to whether it is what the child wants. When parents focus on long term goals like this, they fail to recognize the fact that the child requires some attention to a particular stage of development. Children’s cognitive development has a crucial role in shaping their future and their becoming responsible individuals. The motivation they need at this stage is not about the profession they will choose when they grow up but developing skills relevant and appropriate to their current stage of development. When this aspect is neglected the child may happen to suffer lack of development, which may hamper his or her education in a later stage. On the other hand, parents who understand the relevance of today in shaping tomorrow will pay attention to the immediate developmental needs of their children and attend to this aspect. Children of such parents receive the required attention at the appropriate times and they will be able to develop the skill necessary for each stage of their growth and become capable individuals in their future lives. Another problem that may occur when children are motivated to attain long term goals for their future is that they may end up becoming apprehensive of failure. For example, a child may be motivated at the early stages when a parent tells her that she should become an engineer when she grows up. However, as the child grows up she may begin to harbor an apprehension as to whether she will be able to stand up to the expectation of the parent or fail in the attempt. This fear perception may interfere with the child’s normal growth and development. On the other hand, when children are motivated to attain a short term goal like learning a certain portion of the mathematics theory by a certain date in the immediate future, the child may be able to attain this objective within the prescribed time. This will provide the child a sense of competency and motivate her for attaining similar goals. Even if the child becomes in capable of attaining the set objective, the parent can motivate her to learn it within a next deadline by giving special tuition or coaching. Thus, stage by stage, the child can be taught the mathematics portions to finally make her master it. Such a child, who has attained the required level of competency in math and other subjects related to engineering by the time she grows up, can become an engineer if she is motivated at the stage when she passes high school. Thus, it transpires that defining short term goals and the motivation to attain them are more important than setting long term objectives for children. In order to attain success in life a person has to be very systematic and organized in his or her activities and do the things in a well orchestrated manner. Therefore, rather than focusing on long term goals people need to first attend to the needs of the immediate future. When one takes care of the short term needs at the right time, the long term objectives can automatically be achieved. If a student wants to become a scientist when he grows up, he needs to attend to his present responsibilities as a student and do his academic tasks in the right earnest. For example, he needs to study his lessons well and understand the concepts of science. Similarly, he will also have to attend his practical classes and learn all the processes involved in the lab. When he does this in a disciplined manner, he will understand science better and can become a scientist when he grows up, if he aspires to be one. On the other hand, if the student keeps worrying about the future and remains focused on the long term goals, he or she may risk neglecting the present and fail to do what he or she is supposed to do today. This will deprive the child of the opportunity of learning in the present and exploring the possibilities that a specific period in his childhood offers. When students fail to grab the learning opportunities that come their way in the present they will not be able to achieve the competence, which will facilitate them the faculty to become successful in later life. Therefore, one must appreciate the significance of doing things in an organized manner in the present to achieve success in the future. Laziness is another major problem that spoils human beings and prevents them from attaining success in life. Some people have a tendency to procrastinate and not doing the things they should do today. This tendency can become counterproductive because they are wasting the opportunity that comes their way. If a child gets a good book today, he or she should read it today so that tomorrow when the person gets another one he or she can read it. A person, who utilizes the opportunity that comes his or her way and does the things on time, can become successful in life. On the other hand, one who does not do the things at the right time and postpone it to the future will continue the laziness and lose the opportunities. There is no denial of the fact that in order to achieve success in life a person needs to be disciplined. Discipline is not merely a concept of abiding by certain rules. It also encompasses setting one’s goals and the priorities and working for their attainment. A person who has well defined goals and a clear cut timeframe for their achievement will have the motivation to work on a predetermined schedule. Such individuals work in a systematic manner, with the right focus on their objectives and will be able to achieve them. They will make conscientious efforts to make good the shortfalls and fulfill their ambitions. This enables them to achieve success in life. In order to understand the dangers of procrastination, one must understand what it really implies and what consequences occur as a result of it. Procrastination can be understood as the human behavior that makes them postpone a certain work or action to a future date without doing it now. This tendency may occur as a result of the overload of work or due to the fact that one is not able to prioritize different commitments relating to work or studies. When the tendency to procrastinate creeps into one’s system, the person fails to do the things at the right time and the works get piled up. Thus, within a short time, the list of commitments piles up before the individual, and the challenge to complete them becomes insurmountable. When the person understands that he or she has failed to attend to many important things in life, it can have negative consequences to him or her or the others around, the individual lacks the motivation to act. This further entails depression and lack of self-worth, which further preempts the person from acting. Thus, procrastination will make a person useless in the long run and he or she becomes incapable of standing to the duties and responsibilities envisaged on him both in the life as well as in the workplace. Procrastination usually occurs as a result of people’s inability to manage their time and commitments. Besides, anxiety or complexity related to certain tasks may also make people to procrastinate their work. Whatever, the reason, it undermines the efficiency and effectiveness of a person to do things. The tendency to procrastinate can also interfere with the opportunities that an individual receives and may prevent him or her from utilizing its benefits. People, who do not recognize the significance of today, postpone things to the future on the pretext that they will have enough time tomorrow to do them. Thus, they while away the time today watching TV or chatting on social networks. They fail to understand that if they do the thing today, they will receive the chance to do something else tomorrow. Therefore, a person who attends to his commitments and disposes them off today will receive another opportunity tomorrow. When he gets further opportunities in the future he will be able to use them. However, a person who keeps procrastinating will remain fumbling among several commitments that he is incapable of meeting and he will not be able make use of any of the opportunities that come his way. When a person confronts a problem, he or she should immediately attempt to address it and find a solution. The old adage “A stitch in time saves nine” can be seen as the most relevant covenant in understanding this philosophy. However, people usually tend to postpone remedial actions when they confront a problem. For example, when a person notices that he is gaining weight at a rapid pace, he or she should take immediate action to control the weight by dieting and exercising. However, most of the people do not do this and continue with their lives as if they are normal humans. At a stage, when the problem becomes unbearable or when the face any serious threat to their lives in terms of any related diseases, they take notice and then begin to treat the problem. The simple fact remains that if the persons concerned have taken appropriate remedial action when they first noticed the problem, they could have easily resolved it by doing some exercises and controlling their diets. On the other hand, when they act at a later stage to overcome the problem, it may have already become so complex and uncontrollable that it may sometimes even cost their lives. The tendency to procrastinate becomes evident in humans right from their developmental stages as children. Most of them, in their student days tend to postpone their home works as well as assignments till the last moment, when they have no other alternative but to confront the essential task. Thus, they somehow do it without putting their heart and soul into it and come up with a very poor outcome. Had they done it at the right moment, they would have had enough time to do it in the right manner and be able to produce a quality outcome. The poor response entails not only lower grades in the class but also undermines the self confidence of the student. He or she, therefore, becomes less motivated and as time passes the tendency slowly increases, which can have serious repercussions on the academic career of such students. On the other hand, student who do their assignments in time not only excel in the academic field, they grow confident and become motivated for achieving better results in the future. Such students will be successful in life both in terms of their profession and responsibility to the society and the other human beings. In addition, a student who shows the tendency to procrastinate will show the same tendency in his or her job also and cannot be professionally competent. Achieving success in life is the ultimate goal of every individual and in order to attain this, people need to work hard and stand up to their responsibilities at the appropriate time. The immediate future and things to be done today must receive priority in human lives rather than their focus on the goals in future. The trend of harboring undue worries about the future may cause people to neglect the present, which can damage not only their present but also the future as well. Therefore, one has to realize the importance doing the right thing at the right time and once people become capable of doing this, the future will take care of itself automatically without any conscious effort from individuals. Another significant step for humans to achieve success in life is to eschew the tendencies of laziness and procrastination. People weighed down with laziness tend to postpone the things that they should do today to the next day and then next and so on. This trend deprives them of the ability to utilize the opportunities that come their way in life and they become ineffective in attaining their goals and objectives. The tendency to procrastinate also undermines the confidence in individuals apart from breeding in them a sense of worthlessness. As a result, they lose the motivation to do the necessary things at the right time and thus fail to achieve success in their lives. However, when a person stops worrying about the future and stands up to his or her responsibilities today, he or she will be motivated and act in an organized manner. This will enable people to do their things in time and achieve success in their lives. There is no denial of the fact that what one sows today, one can reap tomorrow and the hard work and dedication one shows today will definitely pay off tomorrow. Read More