LSFL Personal Finance

If you think about what you want most in your life in a big-picture, strategic way rather than a particular, tactical way, you can almost certainly get the life that suits you. On the other hand, if you are very particular and tactical you almost certainly will not get the life you want. That is because there are many paths to the life you want (and, in fact, to a better life than you can imagine) but not the exact path you have in your mind. That is because nothing goes exactly as planned and you aren't yet knowledgeable enough to be precise and single-minded in saying that you want to have exactly that. By way of example, you can say "I want great work in a job where I can be creative, to have big beneficial impacts on others, to earn enough money to take care of my family and myself well, to have wonderful relationships with family and friends, and to live in a place I love”—and you can get those things if you are not stuck on exactly which job, which way you will be creative, which way you will have a big beneficial impact, how much money will be the right amount, which wonderful relationships you will have, and where you will live. Said differently, if you know your preferences and feel the pulls toward those things that suit you—just like one finds the sports or activities that one loves and then pursues them—and you follow those pulls, you will learn more about what you like and don't like, what works and doesn't work, and what you are good and bad at, and that will keep you moving forward toward what you want most in life without being stuck and disappointed that you aren't getting exactly what you want. So my hope for you is that you will be open to the best you can find without being stubbornly stuck pursuing one precisely spelled out path, especially one that isn't getting you to your goals. In other words, don't be so particular that you close out better possibilities. Also, I hope that while you are pursuing the life you want on whatever path you chose, you expect to fail and realize that, rather than a reflection of you being a failure, it is part of your learning process and that you should turn your failures into great learning experiences so that you acquire the skills and principles you need for dealing with your realities well. Also, as far as acquiring those skills, I don't mean that you have to learn to be good at them which would constrain you; I mean that you can get them from others you work well with. If you do those things, you can have a really great life of the sort you want, though it won't be exactly the life you imagine and it won't be perfect. #principleoftheday