The Second Mix Podcast - Reflect, Revise, and Remix Your Life
April 5, 2021

Five Years From Now You Will Surely Arrive

Five Years From Now You Will Surely Arrive

In 5 years, if you are in exactly the same place as you are today, will you be okay with that?

If you look around at your life in 5 years and you have all the same stuff, and all the same joys, and all the same problems, will that satisfy you?

For some people, that might be okay, that might actually sound like a good proposition, and if that is you, then it’s all going to be a game of maintaining what you have. 

For those who won’t be satisfied, for those who want more out of life, I’ve gotta say – five years from now is SURELY COMING. To put off a single day is to grow closer to that time, without having changed, without having grown. 

If you want more, than you have to become more than you are right now. And the only way that I know of to do that is to have a vision of what you want, and the faith that you can get it. That’s the only way I know to get anywhere. 

Maybe there’s another way, I don’t know. Maybe you know of a sure-fire way to be lucky, to win the lottery, to inherit money from some unknown distant relative, maybe you know how to do that. If that’s you, then maybe you don’t have much to worry about. 

I spent 30 years, and even more depending on how far you want to go back into my childhood and teens, 30 years without an actual vision. I had some things I wanted with no plans on actually getting them or trying to figure out how to get them. 

What did I want? I wanted whatever I could get. I was led around by my opportunities, relationships – I was a servant to all the things that were easily attainable to me, that were just a little bit better than what I already had. So I’d move from a job I was happy at to a new job that paid 50 cents more an hour. Then I’d move again. My friends and romantic relationships were whoever I happened to be around at the time. 

I was living my life entirely by default. I was under the mistaken belief – the irrational script – that I couldn’t change my circumstances. This negative script told me that I couldn’t be what I wanted be – couldn’t be as powerful or well-off or influential as I wanted to be.

So to ask myself the question What Do I Want wasn’t even on my radar. I mean, why I take the time and effort to figure out what I really wanted out of my life, if I couldn’t get it anyways? Isn’t that just a waste? Wouldn’t that make me depressed? I was tied to the circumstances of my birth and upbringing, and despite my parents telling me I could be anything I wanted to be, I guessed that it meant, “you can’t be anything you want as long as it means you have a job for 47 years, save enough money, and retire and then enjoy your life.”

That sounded like jail to me. That sounded like my family, friends, circumstances, and my education were all trying to shove me into this little box that I just didn’t fit in. And I thought I was a failure, for not being able to conform to that pattern. 

If one single person had said, “Matt – it sounds like you have the spirit of an entrepreneur. What do you want out of life? Because you can get it,” I would have maybe started my journey earlier.