I do have this very pleasant memory of being in a room full of strangers and listening to a man’s rambling speech about his past. I remember that it was fun to listen, and I remember that I had heard it all before, a week later or so, as he would be delivering the same speech to every other crowd. The best part about listening to him was that he never got to the end. It was always followed by “…and one day I’ll do it again!”. He always had his second career picked out, always had his future life on the line, always had something planned to do next. I’ve never been sure why this was so interesting to me, but I really do enjoy people with big dreams and big plans. Anyway, I wish that there were more people like Uncle Billy, people who lived life on the edge and knew every day was their last. Life is so precious. How much better life would be if everyone were willing to use it? So, if you don’t know what your next big thing is, you can start by not waiting for it. How about you? Do you know your next big thing? Have you done anything about it? I’ve asked this question in previous blog posts (about what it’s like to be in the military in Iraq and in the Navy and how to make peace with our past) and the answers I got were extremely interesting. Here’s one answer I got: “When I was in school, there was this kid who was always talking about a comic book series that would never come out. He would have all these grandiose stories that would eventually go nowhere. He would talk about it incessantly, and there was this persistent rumor that he had been fired for spending too much time on it. He used to say he’d be a millionaire by the time he turned thirty. He was thirty and still didn’t have the money. I remember him saying something about starting a website or making films, but he never did. I never found out if he had ever actually accomplished anything at all, but he wasn’t just some guy dreaming. He was actually pursuing his dreams with every ounce of energy he had.” -From an email In order to find out what your next big thing is you’ll need to have the same dream as that thirty year old kid. When you see someone else pursuing a vision, think to yourself, “That guy is doing what I’m supposed to be doing.” Then follow his example. I know this can be a risky and scary thing to do, but you have to do it anyway. Maybe you have a vision of a perfect career and the perfect life with a great family and a healthy and happy future. Maybe you want to get rich and famous. Maybe you want to find the love of your life. Or maybe you just want to find something that you are passionate about. What if your next big thing turns out to be absolutely terrible? You’ll want to stop, but I know for a fact that it’s possible to find joy even if that big thing that you were pursuing just isn’t working out. You’ll want to stop, and maybe you should, but don’t stop because you’re scared. You’ll need to quit if you’re serious about making a dream a reality. I have to tell you right now that if you follow the advice of every self-help author and become a professional quitter, then it’s going to be a very long wait before you ever become successful in anything you do. A successful person is someone who makes progress towards their goals. A successful person doesn’t take a year off from everything to find themselves and then take two years to find work. If you are serious about pursuing a dream, stop quitting things to find yourself and get started. This sounds simple, but it’s actually pretty hard to do. When I decided to take a year off I realized it was way more difficult than I thought. I quit because I couldn’t see the point of continuing. I don’t remember exactly what I decided to do, but I wanted to see a lot of the world and make some music. When I say I don’t remember what I did, that’s not entirely true. I know I was supposed to get a job and save up money, but this was the only part I ever got right. There were others who were working very hard to see the world too, and many of them were able to meet the goals they set for themselves. In fact, many of them were so focused on their goals that they couldn’t bear to see them slip away. I can see how their life would be like this because it happened to me too. When I finally left, everyone was telling me to do this and that. They were all looking at me as though I had done something impressive when in fact I had done nothing. There was a sense of pride, but I knew it was misplaced. In the end it wasn’t all that impressive. It was fun and I had a good time, but it was not something to be proud of. The truth is that no matter how little I did or how little money I made, I wasn’t actually making progress. In fact, I was in exactly the same situation I had been in before I took the year off. I was broke and unhappy and I was still stuck living in a box in a college town. That’s why I think that taking a year off is a bad idea for everyone, not just unsuccessful people. A year off is nice and it has some benefits, but if you take that year off and then try to make money you will probably not be very successful at it. You need to take a year off and then get serious. My year off was very difficult. I went from being a student to being a free person. I struggled to find myself and struggled to make friends. I was very lonely and I felt anxious all the time, but I did go out and meet people and do interesting things. I’m not trying to discourage anyone from trying to meet people, but you need to do this differently than I did. When you go out to meet people you need to have goals. You need to figure out why you went to college, what you learned from school, and what you want to do with the rest of your life. Then you need to figure out how to start a career. It can be done, but you need to have a plan. You have to commit to working on it every day. I don’t know if I can tell you how to do this. It’s something that I still struggle with. You need to do this because you need a goal to work towards. Once you have a goal, you need to make it something you’re not afraid to work towards. You’re not the same person you were when you started, but there’s a lot you have to deal with that you were able to push aside while you were working on your “lifestyle”. I have to admit that when I looked at my plan for success it looked like something that I was terrified to work towards. I had been scared of success for so long. This was something I thought I wanted, but the whole concept seemed so insurmountable. You have to make this change in yourself because you need to do it if you are going to make any progress towards your goal. In order to make progress, I need to put the year off behind me and focus on my goal. The year has made it much easier for me to do this. It has made it much easier for me to get back into a routine, get a job, and get my life back on track. It’s been two weeks since I started working again, and I’ve been very happy to start doing things that are difficult again. I’m feeling much better about my future now and am even more ready to face it than ever before. Every day that I’m feeling better I can look back on all the things I did in the past and remind myself that I still haven’t given up on anything. In a weird way, I think that even if you’re not happy right now you’re a lot less likely to quit because the alternative is worse. We all come across people who have a plan and then just throw their hands in the air and say, “I can’t do it! I can’t make myself do it!” But when we come across people who have a plan and follow it, we often wish we were more like them. Sometimes we feel like we’re living their dreams. This would be nice. Then you start looking at their life and see that they’re no more successful than