Wow, it’s been a long few months since I’ve posted on here. In these last couple of months, a lot of significant life events have taken place and have turned 2018 into one of the most important years of my life to-date. Most significant of all, the last time I made a blog post, Kryzia was still my fiancé and she’s now levelled up to being my wife.
With so many changes happening in such a short span of time, it’s made me think about the future a lot. It’s easy to get caught up in what’s happening right now that you don’t think about how it contributes to the future. We’re all making “moves”. It’s one of the things the internet world gets caught up in: everyone seems to be making “moves”, but a lot of it tends to be with no real strategy other than with hopes to get famous and rich by any means. I don’t think it’s a very productive or effective lens from which to view things.Over the last several months, I’ve made a conscious effort to begin the process of creating the person I want to become. Kryzia and I have created the habit of setting goals for the year, but I wanted to go a little farther than that. I’ve started to create an image of what my “ideal self” would look like in 10 years (i.e. character traits, finances, career path, clothing choices, spiritual perspective, philanthropic endeavours, etc.). Then I would work that image backwards to figure out what I need to do today in order to get to that point. It’s been a painful process. It has forced me to face the reality of how far I have to go. However, it’s also been beneficial because it’s given be a tangible guide on what moves I need to make strategically.
There truly is power in actually writing down the vision you have for yourself. As cliché as it sounds, I’ve found our efforts to be more focused and strategic. Kryzia and I have been able to make decisions in the last few months to get us on the path to our 2028 selves. In keeping with the idea of writing things down, I came across a website called Future Me (www.futureme.org). It’s a place where I can write a few letters to my future self every couple of years with the purpose of accountability. It’s given me the motivation to commit my mind to perform at such a level that hits each of those predicted milestones that I’ve created for myself.
From a character perspective, one of my biggest struggles has been impatience. It was one of the of first things my parents recognized about me as a kid. For the most part, I’ve been able to positively channel that impatience into some good outcomes from a career perspective. My impatience has caused me to push myself past my comfort zone in my career, bringing great rewards. But my impatience has caused a disadvantage for me on a human relationship level. For example, I have a tendency to be planning and strategizing for the future so much that I tend to not live in the present, seeing accomplishments as check boxes more than significant events to celebrate. Because I’m so wrapped up in the future, it has caused me to only fully interact with people that I’ve deemed could be an “asset” to my end goal, rather than looking at how I can help other people out with their goals.
One of the many benefits of having an open line of communication with my wife is that we are able to check each other when we veer away from the path that takes us towards our end goal. At the end of most of our social interactions (i.e. with friends and colleagues), Kryzia and I will discuss different points where our character fell out of line with the end goal to identify where improvements need to be made. As I’ve learned that I don’t really enjoy criticism, sometimes this debrief process can feel a little bit like I’m being put on trial for things that are seemingly small or that I would typically dismiss. However, I have to remind myself of my end goal from time to time. I have to put in the work to become the best possible 2028 model of Andrel Wisdom. In order to be better every year, we’re going to have to make some improvements and adjustments here and there that are going to be painful in the short-term, but incredibly beneficial in the long-term.
These hard looks in the mirror can at times be a difficult pill to swallow, but to move forward strategically I truly believe that there is no other way that is more powerful to ensure I live up to the goals and dreams I’ve set out for myself.
stateofwisdom 