Design Your Life, part I

As a young teenager, I decided I wanted to be a doctor. So, I volunteered as a "candystriper" at the local hospital. Here I am, standing near the middle of this photo, holding the flowers. 

A great resource on how to design your perfect life is Dr. Chris Baker's book, "REAL." 

Quite a lot has happened since my candystriper days. Here I'm getting ready to enjoy breakfast at Etihad Airways' beautiful lounge at Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH). 

When you were a teenager, and probably even when you were younger than that, you had conscious ideas (thoughts) of what you wanted your life to be. 

I have heard my children say, “When I have a house it will be…”  and, “In college, I will major in…”,  and “I will travel to…”

When my five siblings and I were little, we would build “houses” with our big wooden toy blocks that my mother had cut at the lumber yard, and then sanded smooth. 

Our toy block “houses” were a bit like architectural plans, with room upon room laid out on the floor. We would move “ourselves” (clothespin people) through the house, winding about from the kitchen to the many other rooms we had built. 

We were designing our lives. In our thoughts and dreams, we were imagining what we wanted our lives to be. 

Then, as a young teenager, I decided I would be a doctor. That decision led me to work at the local hospital where I volunteered as a Candystriper. I began to live my dream of working in a medical setting. 

As time went by, I decided on nursing school.  It seemed at the time to be more “do-able” than medical school.   

A few years went by. As a young adult, I was still designing my life. As I practiced as a critical care RN, and with a young son, I finally planned and executed my dream of being a doctor. I decided to be a pediatric dentist. 

And you know what? It took those plans to design my life of today - a joyous, grateful mom, wife, pediatric dentist and orthodontist.  

As we live the life that often “seems to happen” to us, we are often unaware that we designed it. It’s easy to get stuck in the “living” of the life. Yet, in doing that, we are designing our life of our future, by our thoughts. 

If your thought is, “this is my life, and I can’t change it much,” you will be right.
 
If your thought is, “this is my life and I will design x-y-and-z for my future", you will be right.  

"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much."
​     ~ Jim Rohn

It’s your choice.  It’s your opportunity.  You have today. Begin today. Decide to focus on one goal that you want in your life. Your design in your mind - your thoughts - is your beginning.