Your Life is Under Construction
Sometime into my first or second year of college, I got the distinct and lasting impression that, while I was working on improving my life through education, I was really just jumping the hurdles that lay before me until I finally hit the point, where I could say that I had accomplished my large goal or had “made it” as many people say. I felt like I just had to finish school and that then, in a sense, I would be done with the busy work and could move on to real life. Many people around me seemed to have the same feeling. Unfortunately, when I graduated, I felt like I still hadn’t arrived and that there were still more hurdles to jump before I would, so I went back for an MA. . . and then an MBA because I still had the same feeling.
It was during my MBA studies that I started to realize that you should constantly be working toward rolling goals and that what I thought was busy work was just groundwork for every successive accomplishment in my life. During one of my final MBA class meetings, an older, and wiser, friend said that that original feeling never goes away and that you will always feel like there’s something else that you need to be working on.
This thought came to mind recently on my trip to LA as I was being surprised by all of the construction, especially on the freeways. Construction never seems to stop, does it? Because, when one project is done, responsible public administrators realize that there is something else that needs to be built, renovated, inspected, etc. Similiarly, if you are not resting on your laurels and letting life pass you by, you will always have something that needs to be done.
Your life is under construction. Will you plan for your next success while working toward one currently? Or, will you be satisfied to finish what you are doing now and then play catch up later?
Tags: busy work, construction, education, hurdles, life, Los Angeles, realization
October 21st, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Eric!
What a great look at life’s journey? Mine has certainly been “under construction” I could write a book about all I have done! And now, with real estate, it’s more like a hurricane came through and we have to rebuild!
Anyway, enjoyed your post. Check out my blog at http://localism.com/neighbor/realtorthom
October 21st, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Hey Thom, thanks! My trip really got my mind moving on a lot of things like this.
I see what you’re saying with real estate and your site. Looks like you post some pretty interesting things there.
Thanks for reading, Thom!
October 21st, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Don’t think I’ll ever get done working on these projects Eric … but it does remind me of a quote: “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own!”
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:31 am
Joe, ha. . . I can definitely see what you’re saying since you’re a man with many irons in the fire. IN my mind, that’s pretty admirable. Great quote too! Thanks for sharing, Joe.
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Who is the “older, and wiser, friend”???
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Ha. My secret. Actually, now that you mention it, I think I recall you being there for that conversation.
Did I get anywhere close to your “going and going and going” statement?
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Kinda sorta. Maybe not the whole “made it” thing, but just having and end point is site. I think after
being in school for so long I got caught up in the tradition of having a beginning, middle, and end to things.
Each quarter, each project, even Undergrad vs. Masters, there is an “end” and then you celebrate!
Now it seems to just go and go and go without any transitions…. maybe at the end of Q4??? LOL.
is your “friend” perhaps a PhD?
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I can understand that. It is a little weird that there’s always something going. . . sort of like Joe (the 3rd comment) saying that he’ll never finish some of his projects.
Things just keep coming, huh? And, with continual rolling deadlines and whatnot (at least for me), it seems hard to sometimes gauge my success rate if you see what I’m saying.
Nope, not a PhD. Curious, eh? It was a classmate.
February 9th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
life is filled with goals and dreams. some big, some small, and one life’s purpose, my *big* goal. sometimes even i have wondered what i am currently doing, and how it fits into the bigger picture concerning my *big* goal. the feeling never goes off and at times you feel you are off on a tangent. but then again when i rethink after working on those thing originally thought to divert from my purpose, i realize that i have been learning a little bit here and there about how i can go about accomplishing my bigger goal. it helps me plan, preparing me for contingencies. however, i feel that it is important to have a clear idea in mind, and to keep rolling towards it. the question your blog poses can be answered in a lot of ways, and all can be right, depending on the person answering.
on an entirely different note,i just noticed that under the ‘submit comment’ button, there are 2 checkboxes, whats the second one for?
February 10th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
If I recall correctly, it was for subscribing to the comments, but for some reason, there was no text. Can't remember why now that I've changed the design.
Thanks for your comment.
February 11th, 2009 at 12:58 am
If I recall correctly, it was for subscribing to the comments, but for some reason, there was no text. Can't remember why now that I've changed the design.
Thanks for your comment.