Jim brings up a great idea when I saw this quote from him. We all should take a course in the Philosophy of ourselves. The great thing about it is that it won't cost us hundreds of dollars per credit hour that we have to pay to a university. It will cost us some time and maybe a little money in trying to create the course for ourselves, but in the end it will be worth it.
No matter what stage you are at in your life, this development of your own philosophy is important enough to get started on as soon as you can. Of course like many of my postings, it does hold true for this one too: the sooner you get going on this, the better your life could be. There is another point here too, and that is we cannot follow someone else's plan. We have to come up with our own blueprint of our own lives. Now that's not to say that we should not take others' thoughts and opinions into developing our own plan, but for the final decisions, it does come down to ourselves creating our own plan for our life.
As I constantly try and get my students to realize they have to follow their own goals and dreams instead of doing things to please others. I not only find myself needing that advice still at my age but now I also am trying to pass that advice onto my two kids as well. My son will be 21 later this year and my daughter just turned 18 and graduated from high school. I am always looking for suggestions as possible careers for them to look into - with what I think connects to them as the person each of them are starting to become. I am for sure promoting to both of them to explore, ask questions, meet people and look deep inside of themselves to find out what drives them. What do they get fired up about? What excites them? What do they stay up late working on? Along with, what gets them out of bed in the morning so they can get going on things right away? The key for all of us, is to look at these questions for ourselves. Remember, it's never too late to get going chasing after our own dreams, goals and passions.
What do we need to find some of these things out for ourselves? For one thing, we need to spend some time to actually think about some of these things that make up our plan. We need to write them down too, so we can read, plan, make goals, think some more on them and let the ideas come flowing out to help us get going. We need to also change our thinking. The most valuable tool we have is our own brains. The 5 or 6 inches between our ears should be guarded very tightly with what we allow into it. Look to make some changes in our thinking, what we read, watch and listen to. Another point is watching out who we hang out with. Those people that we let affect us are vitally important as to who we become and what plan we are working from too. Finally, our habits are key. This involves how we spend our valuable time and what are we accomplishing with it. Spending our time involves action - we are doing something with our time, but we need to look at how that is actually getting us closer or farther away from our drams and goals. This one is a biggie for me as I struggle with it often. Something once again that I find myself dealing with this summer. I look forward to making some serious strides to improving my habits and how I spend my time.
What about you? Anything here ring true for you too? Always look to reflect on these and other things that can bring you closer to going after your dreams and goals. Find some time this week to do just that. Let me know how it's coming and maybe even get in touch and let me know how I can help you out along with you probably being able to help me out too.