I love the above inspirational quote. Despite his bi-polar personality, his dedication has been a source of inspiration for me.

And it got me thinking: Have any of you felt at certain points in your life emptiness inside of you? Despite how everything is going fine?

This is because of two reasons:

1)      You have not clearly defined what you want in life, and therefore, what you need to do to achieve your hopes and dreams.

We all need the feeling of progression, that we are becoming a better self. If you’ve read my blog posts, you know I preach continual self-improvement.

2)      You have not developed a strong belief system within yourself and at times compromise too much to others’ views.

We all want the feeling of acceptance, but conforming to others over a sustained period of time can lead to a feeling of loss of self. This doesn’t mean you need to be self-centered because as with everything, balance is key.

We’ve all had vivid imaginations when we were young and clear dreams and aspirations for the future. And then we reach the age of school and get placed into the real world environment and the education system. And we go through a paradigm shift: We start realizing life is hard, and our previously set dreams feel unrealistic to attain.

School teaches us to follow the rules. This is most evident when we take tests. We are taught what is right and what is wrong. We start thinking that all that is wrong should be avoided, and all that is right should be continually maintained.

This creates a perception of boundaries in life that Steve jobs described best:

When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is to live your life inside the world, try not to bash into the walls to much, try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader. Once you discover one simple fact: That is, everything around you that you call life, was made up by people no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you will will never be the same again.

And I add to this: “once you learn and embrace this, your life will never be the same again.”

If you want to find what you really want in life. What you want to stand for, the first thing I would recommend is to start a bucket list. This exercise was given to me by an inspiring individual. If you are going to click the link below, decide to TAKE ACTION. Don’t just read it and go back to your daily routines. You can find it here.

Make a goal to write 5 or 10 things a day until you hit 100. Stay tuned for part 2.