It was like a blessing from online when this person asked me some advice in how to re-direct his life. I gave him some generic advice and he added to me that it would be better if I blog about it because he has been following my past blogs. This gave me a jolt of energy; someone has actually been following my posts and has got some insights from it. Now flowing from this, I would like to share a few thoughts about life directions. I believe this topic is quite important for us college students because we are now approaching the door steps of the real world. And in my personal story, I also have a little trouble about life directions in terms of “specific” life careers but for the sake of focus, I will touch on “direction” with in college life.
It is quite typical for all of us college students to reach a certain plateau or hiatus in our drive. This is very normal. That feeling of boringness, the feeling of lingering meaninglessness of the things we routinely do, that feeling of detachment, that feeling of “a head floating”; that zombie like-state that you just wish the day or the entire school year will instantly come to an end. Again, this is very normal. The cases that we should try to be cautious about and aware off is the coping mechanisms we do that might lead us to a nose dive such as habit of ditching classes, habitual drinking, drugs, and so forth. And when we reach a certain saturation point, it is very difficult to climb out from the pit. In all of these realities, there is only one truth I can think of: The greatest human being who can save us in this pit of hell is no other than our very selves. You have to make it a point to brush off the dust in our shoulders and declare to the whole world that I am back in the game! I am not a loser! And by God’s grace, I can give justice to my own creation by being the best of who I am! Enough with the excuses, enough with the habits, enough with the slack, it is time to liberate my true self from the clutches of sloth and greed. Summoning your personal energies to declare these words and by the fullness of your faith then you can slowly accumulate and regain power. Then this is where the momentum starts, it is where the energy starts to build up and by your own resounding personal declaration, you have unlocked the full power of your possibilities and slowly defeating the enemy within.
The key element of sustaining this momentum is having a support group (good friends) or a mentor who you trust and look up to. Find one and I believe there are plenty in this world ( i recommend Jesuit priests and brothers). Share your thoughts to that person, your struggles and ambitions; he/she can aid you in processing these experiences and making sense of them in the context of your own life. Their energies and “positivism” is contagious! 2nd is the practice I keep on repeating in all my posts, the consciousness examen. This is the bedrock of my life. Always allocate time to review the day, the response and feelings you had. By doing so, you have a constant self-evaluation tool that will check if you really lived up to your declaration and are you really winning the war against your “old self” in a daily basis? By having this constantly, it will not be difficult to chart progress. Third is Know what you want and what is important to you– the hardest part. This is the basis of your decisions in college so early on we should try to invest time in knowing what we want and what we need. And i guess God provides that answer in our daily experiences of consolations and desolations. Through the examination of consciousness, we can pin point exactly the moments of joy and sadness, excitement and boringness, intense interest and complete indifference not just of a single day but of a single year or even a span of years if we keep on listening. Linking it all together produces the tapestry of God’s will in your life. Again and again, listen to your heart for that is where God is. And all things will just fall into place.
In the end, these are just anecdotes from my own experience. Again, I am not speaking as an expert. The fundamental truth to this besides the one I stated at the start is that God has a unique plan for each and everyone us – vocation. That can be found in the intersection of your deepest desires and the world’s greatest needs. And this saying I truly believe, without this, what I have written is meaningless. How do we know our desires? By turning away from self-destructive habits, declaring war against our old self, build support circles and constantly examen ourselves in prayer (where desires, values comes out).
AMDG
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