As a father, I hate to see young people waste time. They are clueless as to how precious time is because to them it seems like there is infinite supply of it. But as some of lyrics in the Pink Floyd song “Time” point out, time is important and there is only a finite supply.
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
As parents, we know what you will be going through in the very near future. We know you will need a career and a means to make money to support yourself (let alone a family). Waiting for someone or something to show you the way, will be a huge waste of your time and you will miss opportunities by the mere fact that you fail to look for them. Our youth also seem to want to ignore the very people who are showing them the way…their parents or role models. This is nothing new, it’s been true for generations. However, based on my observations over the last 50+ years – those that work, either by working harder or working smarter, tend to in a better position to make money to support themselves. It makes no difference as to the job you hold. You will be expected to be productive – as in you will need to do something you may or may not like in order to earn money and keep your job. Poor people work, rich people work what defers is the type of work they do and the result. Taking risks has its rewards and dangers. Those who take measured risks seem to do well overall most of the time.
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
You missed it. You went from age 19 to 29 in what seemed like a wink of an eye. You are staring at 30 now and you are saying to yourself…oh shit! You are probably saying this because you didn’t do what you needed to do in order to be in the place you wanted to be at this time in your life. Perhaps you didn’t finish college? Passed on a promotion because you felt comfortable where you were at? Who knows what it was, but now the reality is that you need to get moving…but how? Without any doubt in my mind, the time between 18 and 26 is the time period when your actions or inactions will determine your socioeconomic fate over the long haul. Ages 27 to 37 will determine how well you fine tune your socioeconomic fate. After that, experience kicks in and you really start to manage your place in the world and managing it by your own devices.
And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
True dat! By 50 you still feel mentally like you are 25 to 35 years old, but as you bike or run, or play with your kids you are noticeably shorter of breath and each day brings you one day closer to death – but now you take notice. You may have lost a few friends or family or a parent or two. You have gone to funerals or have had to plan one for a loved one who has come and gone. You know these people now from pictures and memories, and hopefully video you have saved on YouTube as I have. You know that death takes what it wants, from the 30 something cousin to your 76 yr old stepfather. You think of how unfair life is – especially if one dies too soon.
You are 50. You did less in your life than John F. Kennedy (died age 46), Martin Luther King Jr. (died age 39), Elvis Presley (died age 42) and the list goes on and on. You wonder just how in the hell they did so much more in less time than you. My only answer is they took each moment and made the most of it. They probably did a lot of studying, reading, actively went in the direction they needed to go in to be in the place they wanted to be. They worked hard.
They were not on their smart phones all day, they were not playing Xbox all day or waiting for someone to show them the way. They took risks. They didn’t let one bad experience stop them from getting what they needed. They didn’t wait for the government to help them out…they were proactive and helped themselves. And that is really the story I think. They didn’t wait for things to happens, they cast out fear and doubt as not viable conditions and proceeded onward. They made things happen.
As the title says, I'm on Steemit because My Stepdaughter Told Me To!
I don’t know why I did it. I have work to do and have clients that need my attention. I have billable time that needs to be worked. I have my college education, I took risks, I suffered loss and I had to save myself when my world came apart several times around me. I guess I listened to my stepdaughter because if this post helps just one person get off their butt and helps them fulfill their dreams, it will have been worth the time it took to write a 1000-word essay on the subject. Sure have fun in life, feed the birds and smell the forest after the rain, but remember that nothing ever happens unless you make it happen.
Good luck!