Follow the Leader

Dear Followers,

I know it has been a long time since my last post. I have been busy, just like all of you, following what matters most. But there is one thing to learn from following: You can never get ahead if you are always one step behind. You have to lead, and lead yourself in particular if you want to get anything or anywhere.

So, if you have to lead yourself, where do you start? Well, you have to figure out what you want and go after it. You will never get it unless you really want it, and I guess that is one of the lessons that has to be learned by experience. There's wanting something and there is really wanting something. To explain the difference, the first one you see as kind of a dream and makes you feel good in the moment when you think about it. You might get it, and if you do, you were probably lucky or didn't have to kill yourself to get it, but most of the time you don't get it; it's just a big wish. The second one literally creates a burning feeling within you each morning when you wake up that rips at your insides all day long because you don't have that which you want, and you are willing to drive yourself to whatever ends to get it in order to relieve this burning itch inside you. Once you find something that you want that bad, you will understand that there is nothing that can stop you from getting there... Not one chance.

Once you really want something, you will never hear yourself ask yourself this question: when do I start? There is no starting flag. In fact, the race has already started, long ago. The nanosecond that your heart was set on full-heartedly achieving a certain goal, you had already started... You have no time to waste. Life is short. And how you decide to use your time is going to determine what you get out of your time here on this earth. Are you going to have lived a life for yourself or wish you had?

My advice to the leader: do your best. You are going to thank yourself tomorrow for the effort you put in today. There is nothing more true to being you than giving your true effort. Understand that just because you aren't where you want to be now doesn't mean that you should pity yourself. You should respect yourself for committing yourself to get to that level of where you feel you should be. It all comes a day at a time, and no matter what, never never never give up!

This will be it for now, as I allow for my thoughts to process further. I wish you all the best of success with your lives and achieving what you want out of your lives because there is no more enchanting and rewarding a journey that than of creating your own life.

-The Furnace