Shaking up the Stagnant

As you are entering the adulthood portion of your life, you probably have hopes and dreams.  You have an idea of what you want life to be like when you are 25, 35, 45, and onward.  Perhaps there are milestones you hope to reach. Maybe you have observed things in your parents’ lives that you hope to improve in your own.  

I know I did.  Can I share my story with you?

A few years ago, I felt like my life was stagnant.  I didn’t really have a direction.  I did everything I was supposed to: did well in high school, went on a two-year mission for my church, and even graduated from college.

The normal steps that you’re supposed to go through to be a successful, productive adult were checked off.  Then all of a sudden, there was no more checklist.  I didn’t have a vision of what I wanted or where I was going.  And the worst part was that I didn’t realize it.

I was enjoying a good paycheck with a large construction company, but I was on cruise control.  After 6 years, I realized that I was not very happy with where I was going (or rather where I was not going).  To overcome that, I made a short list of what I wanted my life to look like and read it occasionally.

Then in early 2011, I was in an accident and suffered a traumatic brain injury.  The doctors later told me I should have died or at best been brain-dead.

It was a long, hard road back to recovery. It took more patience than I thought I had. But thanks to the grace of God, family, friends, and  a patient boss I worked my way back.

While I recovered, I had a lot of time to think about why I didn’t die and why I recovered so well. What was my purpose? Now that I had this second chance, where was I headed?

I began adjusting the short list I made before the accident.  This is what I came up with:

1. Have a happy/fulfilling home life
2. Wife could be stay at home mom
3. Maintain relationships with long distance family
4. Make the time to be with my kids
5. Maintain relationship with God
6. Serve in local church
7. Make sure my family was financially stable
8. Save for kids’ college
9. Save for retirement
10. Save for me and my wife to do a Church mission when we’re older

Since then, this has grown and become more specific.

In 2014 I got married.  I realized that making my life what I wanted it to be was going to take more effort and focus than I had been putting in. Over the last year I’ve started making plans, setting goals, and making progress.  That progress has been invigorating.

I hope you don’t have to go through a life threatening accident to motivate you to achieve your dreams and live the life you hope for.  Make decisions now to get to where you want to go.  They don’t have to be huge, all-at-once decisions.  Small decisions multiplied over days, weeks, months, and years will be more manageable.