Now What?

Posted by Chris on Dec 30, 2009 in Blog, Personal | 2 comments

Yesterday, Lesley and her new bestie (see def) were working on a “vision board”.  Being the nosey person I am, I laughed and then asked what it was.  You basically take a poster board and cut out items, photos, or words from magazines or newspapers.  Putting them together in a collage to help you visualize your future goals.  I was told that I couldn’t make one because I had my life in order, “Whatever that means, right ?!?”

After my usual late night episode of Cheaters the TV show, I saw some of the cut outs still sitting in the box still waiting to be pasted on the board.  I picked up a couple of them: images of financial freedom, places to call home, and long term goals.  But then I picked up a cut out that stuck out. As if it was faith, the piece of paper was upside down and when I turned it over it spoke to me, asking me: Now What?

I stopped in my tracks.  I think it’s a question we all ask ourselves at some point in time in our lives: Now What?  It’s that, “It’s this what my life has turned out to be” type of question. Taken in a positive or negative way, it makes you think. “Ok…..I’m done with school, got a job/career, have a significant other, car payments, student loans……Now What?”.

It stopped me because I think I ask myself this more than anybody. Almost everyday I stop for a couple of seconds to ask myself: Now What?  Not in the “Okay, I’ve eaten dinner, now what?” type of way. But in the “Always questioning my life” type of way. I’ve always been a quiet over achiever.

I hear, “You’ve done all that and your just 26?”  I usually shrug it off and say “Yeah….and?”  While it’s true I’ve done things in only a fourth of a century that some people don’t accomplish in their entire life, I feel like I never want to gloat about it.  But sometimes being an over achiever, being a type A personality keeps you up at night trying to find the answer to the ongoing question: Now What? I read about the privileged men that were able to step foot on the moon and how they asked themselves that same question day after day once returning to earth.  To go on such an amazing journey, to do something that only a handful of men have done in history, to be a hero and then after it was all over to ask yourself, now what?

I believe that the answer to the question is not important.  It was never intended to be. What’s important is the question itself.  Think about it. The question feeds your curiosity. It helps you not to become stagnant in your life. If makes you reevaluate yourself.  Look deep inside yourself to say “Hey self, is this it? Are you happy with this?  Are we going to improve thy self anymore?” It’s a simple question that some people ignore, but for others it’s a question that fuels their passions, dreams, and desires.

Just some food for thought.