When visiting my mother, I had the opportunity to spend time with a cousin that I haven’t seen in years.  Of course, as with most family gatherings, we began reminiscing of childhood games, getting in trouble together and basically growing up together.  We lost contact with each other when we split for college. And then, we grew up.

It was great! As we were filling the other in on our current lives and decisions my cousin made a comment that I think rings true for everyone. “I never dreamed that my life would be like this. Everyone comes to a place where you look at your dreams and what is reality.  And it can be depressing unless you see the joy in your reality.”

Now, let me set things straight, both my cousin and I are doing well in our lives.  We have found the joy in our reality, but when talking about the olden days it was easy to say, “What happened?” 

Well, life happened.  Decisions happened. Accidents happened and then decisions happened again.  You goofed off during your freshman year in college, but you decided to step it up when you hit your major courses.  You moved to New York immediately after graduation, which may not have worked out.  What do you do now?

You decide.

You decide what happens next. You decide how to respond to that degrading manager. You decide how many hours to work in order to finish that project.  You decide whether to work over the weekend or hang around the house with friends who have no goal in life what so ever.

You decide.

You have to remember that it is not what happens to you, but how you react to what happens to you. You decide your legacy. Start now.

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