The Day Everything Changed
Sometimes you wake up, and everything just changes.
For Daniel, that day was an average Monday morning. The clock on his side was going off for the second time on his phone, and he finally decided to roll out of bed. He glanced over at the ceiling for a second, and pondered why every morning dragged in the exact same way.
He had dreams, yet they always seemed so distant,
he wanted to be somebody in this world,
make his parents proud,
visit the farthest corners of the world,
and live a life that would have him saying, “Wow, I’m living my best life.” But then the doubts creep in,
where does one even start?
As he walked out the door, he saw an old man sitting alone outside of a small roadside shop drinking tea and watching the world go by.
“Young man,” the old gentleman beckoned Daniel over.
“Sir, yes, sir.”
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The old man smiled and said, “You carry a burden of sorts.”
Daniel chuckled and said, “I don’t know what kind of world you’ve been living in, but I can assure that I don’t.”
“I do, young man,” he said.
Daniel sat down beside the old gentleman and told him everything. His dreams and aspirations were told aloud in small bits, the old man listened patiently. When Daniel finished, he looked at the old man and said something that would change Daniel’s life.
“You don’t have to see the entire staircase, just take the first step.”
Daniel sat in silence.
Later that day, instead of going on a usual cell phone marathon, Daniel bought a notebook and wrote the following prompt on that very page.
“What can I do today to make my tomorrow better?”
He quickly jotted down a few ideas and started with the first two;
learn something new and practice it, and do it again tomorrow.
It wasn’t grand, it wasn’t an epiphany of his life’s ultimate purpose, but it was a start.
Months went by, he failed many times, and almost gave up several days, but he eventually got the ball rolling.
One year later, he was looking at an old version of himself and smiling, because he learned a crucial life lesson that many overlook.
A lot of times, life doesn’t give you a thunderous applause on achieving your goals, but instead on quiet Mondays when you feel there’s nothing left to gain, you decide to take the first step and make your own path.
