Dr. John Fabre, the great French naturalist, conducted a most unusual experiment with some processionary caterpillars. These caterpillars had a peculiar nature of following each other blindly. Dr. Fabre carefully arranged them in a circle around the rim of a flowerpot. In the center of the flowerpot were pine needles, which is the catepillar’s favorite food. The caterpillars followed each other blindly, around and around they went hour after hour, day after day, night after night, dying of starvation one after the other. By the seventh day, they had all died. They literally followed each other and starved to death with an abundance of food less than five inches away. What a tragedy you might say.
This is exactly what is happening in the life of many people today. Folks blindly follow their contemporaries without having an iota of thought for their own mission or goal in life. Today, many troubled young people do not succeed because they are an easy target for drugs, alcohol and a destructive lifestyle. They have no dreams, no plans and no goals. Their lives have no purpose. The Beatles wrote a song that states, “He’s a real nowhere man, sitting in his a nowhere land, making all his nowhere plans for nobody. Doesn’t have a point of view, knows not where he is going to. Isn’t he a bit like you and me?” What about you?
Plans bother some folks because they think it will cramp their style or stifle their creativity. Nothing could be further from the truth. Developing a plan for your future is the most creative task you will ever undertake.How can you get what you really want out of life? I believe you start by establishing a goal and a plan to reach that goal. These essentials apply regardless of whether your interests and goals are in education, medicine, athletics or whatever.
A famous actor decided to make a mid-life career change. His goal was to enter politics. He carefully charted out a plan that began with involvement in local and then in state politics. That man, whose goal also included the highest possible office in America, is Ronald Reagan.
Your life will drift into nowhere. If you have no plans, then circumstances, challenges of the hour, unusual situations and negative people will determine your priorities. You may never get out of low gear. Nothing in this life gives you more satisfaction than knowing you are on the road to success and achievement. There is no bigger challenge than making the most of yourself. Believe it, and it can be done. Confidence in your potential success sets the mind in motion to find a way accomplish your goals.
If you are pregnant with an idea or vision in life may have to talk, think, believe and act differently. Obviously, you might have to face criticism from strangers and even from family and friends, but you should never give up your vision because nobody feels what you feel and nobody sees what you see. Anytime I find myself in the majority in life, I believe its time to pause and reflect, because if everyone is saying the same thing, then someone is not saying something.
We are often told never to cross a bridge until we come to it. This world is owned by men who have “crossed bridges” in their imagination far ahead of the crowd. Everything great started as somebody’s daydream. Successful people are first dreamers.
One of the greatest gifts we possess, as human beings, is the right to make choices. Many people blindly allow others to determine their path in life. You either make a choice or life will forcefully choose for you and may I inform you that life will rarely choose to your advantage. Fulfillment of your vision and destiny is your responsibility. Always remember that you are the master of your fate, the architect of your future and the person behind the wheel of your life. How you succeed in life should be up to you!
