We Are All a Reflection of Our Average Life.
If you’re not satisfied with your average, do something about it.
When you think about it, we’re the living projection of how we’ve spent our days leading up to now. Not yesterday, last week or last month, but a lifetime of decisions we chose to follow through with is what got us to this point. Take a minute to let that sink in.
The person I am, and you are, at this moment, everything we have possession of; our thoughts, belongings, mindset, and even the way we look, are not a consequence of a single decision, but the average of a lifetime of decisions.
Admittedly, we can’t do anything about past events now, without a DMC DeLorean and a flux capacitor. I have neither, so for now at least. We’ll have to stay where we are, in the present.
So We're Stuck?
Not exactly.
Undoubtedly, we’d do things differently if we had another go at life, but hindsight is a beautiful thing. It’s worth reminding ourselves that without the bad, we wouldn’t have the good in our life either, so we should be grateful for that. To have, or do something else with our journey though, we must do something different.
For inspiration, we should take heed of Thomas Jefferson’s advice when he said:
“If you want something you have never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done.”
I say as inspiration because I’d suggest we add a little extra to make it:
“If you want something you have never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done and then do it over, and over and over again.”
Basic Maths
Ok, I’ll keep this quick, I promise.
I know I said time travel wasn’t possible, but if we fly back to School for a moment, we’ll remember that the ‘mean’ is the average number of something.
To find this, we simply add up all of the numbers from a sequence and then divide them by the total amount of numbers you used. In other words, it’s the sum, divided by the count.
Example 1
Imagine if Person A were to do a writing challenge, every day, for 30 days:30 posts / 30 days = An average of 1 piece of writing per day
Person B did the same challenge but only completed 15 of the 30 days:15 posts / 30 days = An average of 0.5 pieces of writing per day
Example 2
Now imagine, Person A didn’t do any more writing for the rest of the year. They’d have now completed 30 posts in 365 daysIf Person B continued with the average of 0.5 posts per day for the same period (365 days)though, they’d have completed 182.5 posts in 365 days.It's a significant increase, and the longer this trend goes on for, the larger the difference becomes.
Still here? Great, that’s the maths lesson complete. :)
What Does This Mean (No Pun Intended)
I wanted to share the above calculations with you because they illustrate the power of persistence.
We often have lightbulb ideas of what we want to do with our life. We go all in, but the dream wasn’t worth the sacrifice (time, effort, energy, missing nights out) so we ground to a sudden stop a short while later, but more crucially before we make any meaningful impact.
We have to understand that it’s the longevity of an action that gives it substance.
Each Passing Day
When we’re younger, time is on our side.
We can explore, take on new opportunities, make mistakes, dust ourselves off and know that these things undoubtedly help mould us, but they don’t ultimately define us.
I don’t say this to scare you or make you anxious, but with each passing day, we shorten the average of our decisions.
The more set we become in our way with our behaviours and actions, the harder it is to swing the decision/act/ideology in our favour.
Understand that if there’s a good (and practical) time to kick-start change, it’s TODAY.
Final Thoughts
Our attitude and what we dreamt of 10 years ago will be different from what we hope for in 10 years.
While we can’t change the past, we can change the direction of the future if we know what we want to achieve. If you find that you’re veering off track, re-align yourself — It’s much easier if you know where you’re heading.
The key takeaway to all of this though is to take immediate action and stick at it.
Before You Leave
Thanks for being here. I’d love to keep in touch so join my mailing list now for semi-regular e-mails about what’s been occupying my mind over recent weeks.
