“Graduation is only a concept. In real life every day you graduate. Graduation is a process that goes on until the last day of your life. If you can grasp that, you’ll make a difference. ” ~Arie Pencovici~
How can we stop the past from effecting the present and the future? That’s not an easy question to answer.
If you have gone through separation or divorce, perhaps you have gone through a difficult period where you always judge a potential new partner against the old one, despite the unhappiness that that previous mate may have brought to you.
If you are a marketer who keeps going to the same market with the same offer and getting meager results, what holds you back from trying a new approach?
Life patterns, if well developed, are great navigating tools to help you separate the wheat from the chaff. They allow us to measure progress and determine according to a set of concrete criteria whether doing something or being with someone is beneficial to our growth.
Some of you may think that our moral obligations must be chained to us forever. Such mindset encourages us to feel guilty and to suffer at the expense of our personal growth.
You hear such people say things as “I’d love to take that new job but I can’t leave my husband to fend for himself. He can’t even fry an egg.”; “My kids steal all my time, so I have none for myself”; “If I left the firm, it would go to seed.”
Let’s rephrase these mental mind traps:
“It’s time for my husband to graduate to self-sufficiency. My personal growth is not subject to his”
“I love my kids dearly, but love must be a two-way street. I am a multidimensional being whose pleasure and accomplishments are(at times) independent of them”
“Firms will come and go, as will I. It’s time to move on to new challenges. I’ll find my replacement this week.”
This article’s title is “Commencement,” which is often misunderstood as graduation. Commencement means “To begin,” not to finish.
Have you stopped questioning your status and condition in the scheme of things? Are you commencing with your life every day? Are you victimized by the random ebbs and flows of life? Are you not never endingly educating yourself to be a bigger and more successful you? Are you relegating your fate to the whims and fantasies of others?
Then please get a grip. Dedicate yourself to education and action. Truly, the best is yet in front of you once you take the reigns. Let’s commence.