A while back I wrote a post that talked very, very briefly about the subjective experience of time. The draft of part two has been in progress for a while, but this is not it. This is just to talk a little bit about where my head is at right now – which is a pretty good place – with some relation to that topic.

My birthday was a few days ago and now I am 26. Of the last eight years that I’ve “been an adult” I feel as though the last three have been some of the most formative ones. I may not know exactly what I want in the long run, but I have refined a usable philosophy for attacking the things I want to accomplish with my life that is going a long way toward that goal. It’s even pretty simple and breaks down into just a few points.

Take nothing for granted.

In my opinion taking things for granted can be a very easy thing to do for someone like myself who has been well-advantaged for my entire life. Not just in material things but family, good friends, intellect and health. Like anything of value these all require attention and care and an un-selfish attitude to stop from thinking that I am inherently entitled to these things. Through this I can appreciate what it is I really have and come just that much closer to true happiness.

Good things require hard work most of the time and smart work all the time.

While I feel there can be a degree (albeit a small one) of luck in many situations, the fact of the matter is that actions are what count most. But I don’t subscribe to the idea that all good things come from hard work. Rather I try to work hard at working smart. Patience is the key virtue here I feel. If more care is taken while planning great things, more productive work is the result, but that requires an individual (or organization) have the presence of mind to go about things in a thoughtful way that guarantees success, rather than initiating a flurry of activity that is likely to not be the best possible plan.

Don’t force focus; focus on what moves you.

This one I will admit is something that I think works best for me because of my personality… Being honest I think that one of my real strengths is in the fact that I have a very large breadth of knowledge and interests. I definitely have quite a bit of depth in certain things (computer science and music for example) but even in those huge fields I tend to study a wide range of topics rather than specializing in a few things. Some people might not consider this wise and I admit it doesn’t work for everyone; we all have different ways of doing things. For me I consider it a huge strength because I rely on it to see topics from many different angles.

That said, I’m like that because I’m honest with myself about if I’m enjoying whatever it is that I’m doing. Simply put I study, work and participate in the areas that are most interesting to me at present time and rarely force myself to focus on a topic if it stops becoming enjoyable just because I may have been working on it for.. however long I may have been working on it. Chances are that it will become interesting to me again and in the future I’ll turn to it once more, but then armed with all of my additional experiences and things I’ve learned since.

…but you need to be able to know what you want to concentrate on.

Everything I said above about letting my interests take me wherever they may doesn’t mean I go around life without a game plan though. I do spent a good deal of time thinking about the big picture and how all the little things I’m interested in fit in the grand scheme of things. This sort of planning is essential for me to stay productive and for me to keep myself in check; making sure that I’m always working toward my goals.

Some concentration needs to be forced occasionally then, if only to ask myself, “Is this really furthering to me toward goal x?” Balancing the whims of the present self against the long-term outcome is a critical aspect of all successful people I think. (Of course, you can go a little crazy with this notion as well and I’m definitely not advocating that.)

Always look at the world with wonder.

I mean this not in the sense of a yokel, but of someone who is not jaded to the truly amazing aspects of our universe. Appreciate that which deserves appreciation. In some ways this goes back to my first point of not taking things for granted. If I can continually look at things with fresh eyes I keep thinking about things from different perspectives. It’s said that the wise listen first and talk second. I think this should be applied to how we see things outside ourselves as well. Listen to everything around you and become enlightened.

All that said I have felt a sense of productivity and clarity about the things I’m working on lately that is just fantastic. I think it’s sort of a long-term form of tunnel vision. I sometimes experience that sort of complete concentration while working where I slip into the zone or the groove or whatever you want to call it and time seems to lose meaning as I accomplish things that might take me days if I wasn’t in that state of mind. This feels like that but at a higher level; almost in the background. Needless to say I’m taking advantage of it while it’s here!

So at 26 it’s nice to see that while I’ve definitely made mistakes along they way I actually do seem to be in control of my destiny for the most part. I know there are times when it can feel like you’re just going through the motions but when that moment of clarity comes where you snap out of it and realize that you have the ability to do the great things that you want… Well, it’s liberating.