A Scripted Life: What Choice Do You Have?

I have no knowledge in programming but there is still one thing I managed to pick up from my little bit of venturing into JavaScript (I only know probably the first few lines of the syntax).

I understand that as a programmer you would plan and write out in details the instructions that your program must follow for it to perform the tasks you intended it to carry out. No matter how smart or effective the program might be, It can and would never function outside what you have programmed it to do.

Recently, I have been very restless as most things that happened to me in the past which are better forgotten were etching themselves into my memory and I begin to ask myself that: as human beings do we actually make choices in our lives? Are we not acting out what has been programmed into our lives by God, Fate, Destiny or whatever?

If you are successful in life, does that mean it couldn’t have been otherwise? That whatever you do, you must be successful or poor as the case may be?

In programming, I remember that you could have syntax like “if….else….” meaning the programmer has given the program choices to operate within. If it encounters certain predetermined conditions it acts in a certain way…else …it acts differently!

We have the same conditions scripted into our lives. That is why you see once an introvert person becoming an extrovert; a very shy person becoming a great speaker and motivator. Once a poor sales person becoming a super sales star. The list is endless. Once belittled people in our societies suddenly become our heroes because they consciously follow a predetermined condition different form the one they have been following.

These people have not really created a new condition or choice rather they have run through the scripts of their lives and make shift from a condition or instruction (if you prefer the word ‘instruction’ to ‘condition’ as used in this context) that does not empower them to one that empowers them.

Success and failure have been part of our human lives right from day one of our existence; the outcome is only determined by the choice we made; what we choose to do or not to do.

These two conditions are programmed into our lives with specific instructions to follow as we received the visa to come to this world. We all move around having equal tendency to succeed or fail in life; just like a program that can be run in a default mode...

our default mode as human beings is failure mode; that is why it doesn’t take conscious efforts to fail.

But to succeed in life, you must take conscious steps and follow the laid down instructions for a successful life.

The beauty of it is that, we don’t have to write these instructions ourselves that has been taken care of for us, all we need to do is to follow them. And “to follow” instructions is what majority of the people are finding difficult to do.

“Write out your goals,
write out the list of ten things you must do the following day,
commit yourself to follow them through”

Many people are finding it extremely difficult to follow this simple instruction and no wonder there are many unrealized goals.

You can never realize the full potential of any computer program if you continue to run it in its default mode neither can you…

discover your true self and what you are capable of achieving in life if you continue to run your life in default mode.

If you have operated your life in default failure mode for a long time, it might be difficult for you to retrieve the instructions to shift to success mode from within you.

Don’t despair, you can get back this success consciousness and make a huge success out of your life by following the footsteps of those who have been operating in the success mode

Why Do Most People Fail In Life?

Few days ago, my Boss saw a copy of the book written by Steve Pavlina: Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth and  he became interested and asked where he could get a copy for himself. I told him I ordered it over the internet through Amazon Store I went further to open the author’s website for him so that he could read some of the articles there.

 I purposely printed an article where Steve gave ten reasons people should never get a job. The article got him hooked and he became sober for most part of the day. He was able to reflect over the past years of not fulfilling his dreams. He ought to be running his own business by now rather than working for somebody who is not even up to him in age.

His reactions got me thinking and I realized that the only main reason, aside other factors which I am not going to talk about here now, people fail in life is due to the fear of unknown. Most people really want to see clearly what lies in the dark before they make the move; they are waiting for the perfect conditions.

How many times have you decided to purse a course of action or vision that you are very passionate about but find it impossible to take off because you are not sure of what lies beyond the present? You don’t want to take off until you are sure that the outcome will be exactly what you anticipated. And the result? You never get off where you are.

It happens to every one of us at one time or the other in our lifetime. But those that do move are those that dare to take the courage and plunge into the unknown; they look at the fear of unknown in the face and move towards it.

Somebody once said that:

“Courage is not the absence of fear; but the ability to move on despite the fear”.

 it is better to try and make mistakes or face numerous challenges than sit back and expect things to get perfected or until a soothsayer comes around and say “go ahead the coast is clear.”

No doubt many of us have missed great opportunities in life because we could not see and actually go beyond our fears. How sad in retrospect!

I used to belief that those that are successful in life are luckier than the rest of the society that are struggling to make ends meet. But now, I know better. Opportunities in life go to those that are ready for it. Why do people keep working on jobs they don’t like? They are afraid to start their own business, because of fear of not succeeding at it.  Not even now that the internet has simplified the way business is conducted over the internet.

I eventually encouraged him and he promised place order for his own copy so that he could learn how to overcome the fear of unknown in his life.

365 Days Of No Post! - What Have I Been Doing?

How time flies? I couldn’t believe it that I have not really had the chance of making even a single post here in the last 365 days. 

My first reaction upon this discovery was to reflect on what had actually kept me from my blog entries in the last twelve months, have I lost interest or is it that I have nothing to blog about? The followings are what I came up with…

 A Very Limited Time

I spend a chunk of my time on my 8 to 5 day job. I usually wake by 4:30am and leave my house for office by 5:45am. I might not get to the office until 7: 20am or 7:40am or later depending on the traffic situation on the road. I then go through the usual routines in the office till 5:30pm or 6:00pm or past depending on whether I have urgent job to complete before I could go home.

Going home is the most dreadful part of my typical day because I would spend about 3 hours or more on the road. How long I stay on the road is usually determine by the traffics situation.

 Darkness is another thing I contend with at home on a daily basis due to incessant power outage which could be on for days; generators with their attending nauseating noise have become our major source of power. Hardly would I spend another three hours at home before I surrender to the cold hands of sleep!

A Shift Of Interest In My Career

I am an insurer by profession, but in the last few years I have developed so much interest in computers and the internet that I am really considering a career change. My co-workers usually call me to help do one or two things with their PCs whenever there are problems. I also pick interest in Web design that I spent most of my time last two years buying web design books from Amazon and I have spent almost my free time including weekends in year 2008 learning web design through the pages of those books I bought from my Amazon Store. Hopefully, I might publish here my review of the books and maybe links to sites I build as a result of the knowledge I gained from my self-taught skills in web designing.

Environmental Challenges

Like the traffics and incessant power outage I mentioned earlier on; internet accessible is also a little bit of an issue especially in months that I have more financial constrains. Often times, I might not be able to spend more than two or three hours on the internet and I normally used this time in last one year to get tons of free resources and paid information on web design and online marketing . I really want to have a feel of how I could market my knowledge and experience when I eventually kiss my day job goodbye!

Finally, I will be glad to receive your comments on how you think I could tackle these challenges differently or what you would have done if you happen to find yourself in my typical environment.