I think when I envision my future in five years the main goal I have is to be genuinely happy in most if not all aspects of my life. I hope to have a job/career that I love, be surrounded by family and friends who keep life interesting and we all keep each other in good spirits, and I hope to be genuinely happy in who I am as a person and where I am headed.

 

Different shifts I think I could take to get to this place in my life would be to hone in on one or two of my passions and push myself to take every opportunity I can to help get me to where I want to be. This is much easier said than done, but I hope I can have the courage to jump on all the opportunities that interest me and that hopefully will push me further in my life. I think it is important to also push myself to be more goal-oriented in a smaller focus because I tend to think about the big picture more so than the details. I think those details are going to be what really help get me where I want to be.

 

I think it is important that I also take time every day to think about what I want my life to be like, long-term and short-term, and create goals to try and achieve those goals. More recently I have also taken more time to focus on myself and do things to help keep myself at peace. This might include meditating or writing or carving out the time to work out or do an activity I really enjoy, honestly doing anything that will help bring joy to my life. I think it’s important to keep this up to maintain at a good sense of peace with myself and stay aware of who I am and what I want. It is easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life and I am learning that it is more and more important to make time for yourself. I think to be able to connect with others in the right way, you also need to be in tune with yourself and your goals to be able to see and understand others, to then hopefully work together to achieve those things.

 

When connecting with others I think it is important to keep an open mind. The world is full of different people who have different perspectives and everyone has their own skills to offer. I think it is important to keep that in mind when you meet new people and to try and be as accepting as you can be even if they are so different than you. I think it is also important to listen to others so you can learn from them. I think as I grow up, I realize everyone has some sort of knowledge or wisdom we can take away from them, it’s just a matter of allowing them to show you what they can. I think this is something that I will be doing a lot more of in the time to come and hopefully this will help me grow into a more well-rounded person when it comes to my own knowledge on things and how I view the world/others.

 

I know that these things can’t prevent the bad from happening but I think implementing these things in everyday life can help make the good times great and the bad times easier. I think that striving to push yourself to be the best you can be and meeting others and trying to collaborate with them will help move you forward in life more so than anything else will. In combining all of these strategies, I hope to achieve all my goals with the most positive way I can offer, while maintaining the highest level of integrity to then lead by example.  It’s always a team effort to get anywhere, no matter how independent you might be, it is important to work hard to improve yourself and to work with others to help create the best possible outcomes in every situation life has to throw at you.