MKMMA WEEK 8 — DON’T LET OTHERS BRING YOU DOWN

Hardly anyone considers this concept, yet it is one of the more defining positions on your life that you will ever take…

“Make your future bugger than your past”

By this, I don’t mean living more years in your future than in your past… although that too. No. This has much more to do with what you do with your future as compared to your past accomplishments, regardless of how long you live.

What are your dreams? Your aspirations. And most importantly – your plans.

Since no man is an island, it’s hard to tackle this in a meaningful way in isolation. You’ll hardly find a bigger influence on your life than those whom you hang out with.

And all your relationships either support your future or your past.

Who are your associates? Do they dwell on the past? Have they stopped growing? Do they support a bigger you? Or do they want to keep you mired down in their comfort zone.? Remember this, it’s extremely difficult to do meaningful things with your life with a ball and chain attached to your ankle. And unfortunately, much of the population represent balls and chains to those around them.

Think of this, and I’ll bet it applies to someone you know…

There’s a low ambition person or persons out there who are uncomfortable with their friends stepping it up a notch, making major advances in their lives. Most will pull their friends back rather than encourage them. Why? Because your advancement reflects badly on them. Not only do they see a friend slipping away, but it puts a magnifying glass on their inadequacies. They are reminded of their underachievements, and that’s uncomfortable.

So instead of encouraging their friends and relatives, they do the opposite. And if you’re their friend or relative, they’d rather drag you back than let you go. (Personally, this reminds me of Marea talking about how fishermen catch crabs with a crab pot, and how any time a crab tries to get out, all the other crabs make sure that it doesn’t.)

Doing something meaningful doesn’t come easily for most. You usually need a support group to grow. So that sometimes means cutting or at least diminishing ties. If so, this can represent hard personal choices.

Sometimes, these decisions are painful. But in your times of discomfort, remember this…

Those who decide to not grow anymore automatically cut or reduce your ties, unless YOU make conscious decisions not to grow.

And why wouldn’t you want to grow in this age of abundance, especially if your healthy lifespan suddenly became open-ended?

Sure, I can understand why people settle for the status quo later in a terminal life. It’s tempting to kick back, especially when the end is closing in on you. But times are a changin’ my young friend. Personal possibilities will soon become limitless. And when that happens, you’ll be left far behind if you allow your past to overshadow your future.

GENOME PROJECT

 The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up human DNA, and of identifying and mapping all of the genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint.