A Piece Of The Puzzle
Wisdom is a comforting thing. It feels like we've finally found it and might actually be on the right track.
Sometimes we're faced with a tough decision and it's reassuring to think "I have this figured out." Even if that's not true, knowing that someone else has faced the same situation in the past can go a long way in easing our worries. How do you know? Because they wrote about it!
The blog post you are about to read is created for those of us who need guidance. It outlines the steps one should take when faced with an extremely difficult life decision, from deciding what path to take, to how you'll handle your emotions after picking a side.
It's a difficult subject and the author of this post came up with a nice, neat little solution for figuring it out. What? "This article is going to tell you exactly how to decide which path to take in your life and what you should do when second guessing your decision."
NO! RUN AWAY FROM THIS POST AT ONCE! IT'S A DEVILISH PLOT TO PLACE YOU IN THE MIDDLE OF A CRISIS FOR FANTASTICLY INCONVENIENCEABLE REASON.
Okay, I'm done. It's okay to read it now.
In all seriousness, this article is more than a piece of the puzzle; it's a 3 .2 earthquake that shakes you like an angry boy in a tightly locked toybox. This is one of those blog posts that you think about for days on end and find new connotations every time you pass it through your head. It's one of those articles that can completely change the way you look at your life, and in my opinion, change is a good thing.
I was first exposed to this article on the wonderful website Reddit. It's a place where people from all over the world can share their opinions and experiences through the use of 'subreddits' which are essentially blogs.
The more you get involved in Reddit, however, the more you find that each subreddit is like its own little society and tends to share similar opinions and beliefs with other subreddits, forming a 'subreddit culture.' This often leads to heated debates between users of different subreddits who refuse to accept any opinion but their own.
The more you get involved in Reddit, the more you find that each subreddit is like its own little society and tends to share similar opinions and beliefs with other subreddits, forming a 'subreddit culture.'
When I became a part of the college subreddit, I soon found myself in debates with users who claimed that they were lost and had no idea what to do after graduating. In my opinion, this was because they were approaching the situation from the wrong angle. It didn't matter whether they had a passion for writing, or engineering; if their job choice came out of necessity instead of desire, it was likely that they would be unhappy on some level.
After a few heated debates, I began to look for alternative means of helping people decide their future. That's when I was introduced to the aforementioned Reddit post, and it completely changed the way I viewed my own situation.
The author of this blog post has been through a lot within his life and he's come to one of those few moments that you may have in your life where you have to make a decision that can drastically change your path. He wants his readers to find happiness within their lives instead of being miserable in whatever path they choose; it was as simple as that, really.
So what is this article? What should you expect? A captivating story line? Specific examples and evidence? Sure. But the most important aspect of this article is the lesson and advice in it. What you should take away from reading this is not a list of specific guidelines to be followed, but rather an approach to solving your own personal problems you may encounter when stepping into a new frontier.
I don't mean to say that all problems can be solved like this; there are plenty that remain unanswered and we must rely on our own ingenuity. But if there are those moments where it's absolutely necessary, I think this will help us come up with a definitive answer in the most efficient and meaningful way possible.
The author starts off by saying that he was in a place where every decision seemed like it would impact his life forever. Sometimes you're so used to making decisions with little or no consequence, that when you have to make one that actually matters, it's hard to think with a level head.
After taking a few weeks to sort things out, he says that he came up with the following chart for decision-making:
"When I considered all my options and tried to figure out what I wanted, I soon realized that there were many things I wanted, but almost all of the realistic options wouldn't give me everything I wanted right away. That's when I came up with this chart. I started out with some of the more obvious, important things on the far left, and all the way over on the right are things that I enjoy but aren't all that important. I then put everything in between these two extremes to indicate how much each thing meant to me now and how much it would mean later. The three things in the middle are my most important: Freedom, Independence, and Moving Out. A few months later, I added a few other things to my list and moved some of them around as well."
- A Piece Of The Puzzle
The idea here is that he took his long term goals and broke them down into short term goals which he then linked together. This way he could see how much time and effort he'd have to put into each goal, and what activities he'd need to take to make it closer to being a reality.
"I created a chart so that I could figure out the best way to make all the things I want in my life happen at once. The chart includes everything from having freedom from debt, independence from others, moving out of my parents' home, getting rid of credit cards, having enough money for basic expenses, meeting new people and having great friends or a significant other. It also has dreams I want to achieve like playing in a band and becoming a writer. It is not a perfect list, but it's the best I have right now."
- A Piece Of The Puzzle
Some of these goals will require some time to become reality. Some will require money, or a certain level of savings on hand. Others are very unlikely to happen at all. But most things on this list can be acted on in some way to give us more control over our lives. Here's how things look after removing all the things that we know cannot be achieved:
These are the five main decisions you'll want to make when deciding your future.
Conclusion
You'll notice I left out one step in the author's chart. When you put your short term goals in front of your long term goals, and you line them up on their own, you'll notice that some of them will inevitably overlap. Should we go for a paying job or start a family? Should we think about moving out now or wait until we have more money saved up?
Here's the thing about these decisions: if you knew for certain which one to make, would you have any problem making a decision at all? The answer is no. Because as long as both paths are viable options, there's nothing stopping us from choosing either one.