Here’s a story that will help you understand and gain focus in your practical life. Daniel and Adam were two good friends. They had been there for each other like brothers since childhood. However, they had to get apart because of undergraduate studies. In college, their lives changed which molded their personalities. People always brag about the fact that college is the time of experiences, well, it truly is. Until high school, both Daniel and Adam were average students in terms of academia and extra-curricular activities. Yet, they loved their lives — less to expect, more to enjoy.

Daniel:

He never focused on studies and missed several classes because of hangouts and parties. In his free time, free from parties and expeditions, he would just lay around and waste time. He became an ambassador of lethargy and procrastination. When the exam prep week came along, he got a little scared. He thought that he would fail because he literally never made any significant effort towards studies. The anxiety increased and he started being stressed out all the time. Thus, he made a plan to study. He tried to schedule whatever the time he had according the subjects and the respective difficulty level. However, he was never able to follow up the plan. Why? Because his mind was stuck in this stressful limbo. “What if I don’t even understand the basics? Who’s going to help me in prep? This text book is too bulky, so which chapters should I focus on? How about I take a nice nap and then study? What if I go out for a while to release some stress and then study in a calmed down attentive manner? Snap…I have lost two more days. Okay, never mind. Tonight, I’ll study the whole book. How about I sleep tonight and study after a healthy breakfast in the morning?” All these thoughts strangled his mind and his attention was always sinking towards let’s-not-study matters. Over thinking only increased his stress and never helped. Even when he pushed himself too hard and successfully sat on his study table, he was unknowingly spending most of his time on Facebook, YouTube and cellphone. He did manage to do some prep, but it not sufficient on any level.

Anyhow, he hoped that he will pass because a few of his college mates passed the same way. Finally the exams came, his first exam went horrible. He was freaking out and because of that, he was vague even when he was trying his level best to understand the concepts described in text books. He also tried to go for a group study but that didn’t work out either. Either the people were too busy in their on schedules for prep or they were as bad at study as himself. Finally, the evil of exams have ended and now I can have my awesome life back, he thought. He tried not to care much about the results or change his attitude towards life and his future. And so the results came out. What was the outcome? He failed. He was ashamed and made a promise to himself that he will change and never be silly in making serious decisions again. But that did not happen. And he was kicked out of the college. Its been ten years since that time and he has finally learnt his lesson that being careful about serious matters is the requirement for survival. Today, he tries to improve his way of living. What does he do? A salesman at a cheap jewelry shop. Did his improvement in way of living did any good? Not so much. Why not? May be because it will take some time and he is not lucky enough to win a lottery. What was his major fault? College failure? No, his major fault was lethargy — an endless chain of non-productive time events. Can he still manage to gather up the positive energy and start over? Yes, its never too late — but it requires dedication, creativity, productivity and a honest-to-oneself mindset.

Adam:

He was also a cool guy like Daniel — loved adventures and parties. On the other hand, he also tried to have a responsible attitude in serious matters. He did not study hard either, however, he did not miss any classes and tried to spend his free time in a productive manner. He loved playing with coding languages and software applications. Therefore, everyday he would set one small goal for himself and make sure that he achieves his objective by the end of the day. Otherwise, he was always ready to sacrifice his sleep or eating time to fulfill his ambitions. Somehow, he deliberately associated his extra-curricular activities with his educational studies. This helped him in prep for exams, he was not studying much but an enough bit everyday. What happened to his academic career? He did pass the exams. However, later after a few semesters, he had to drop out of college because his parents were broke and couldn’t support his college studies anymore. Its been ten years since he went to college and he still has that energy and excitement. What is he doing right now? He owns a software development company. What? How’s that possible when he did not even graduate? He used his productive and creative nature to follow up his ambitions. Life gave him quite a hard time but he never lost hope. His dedication and hard work became the key to his success. He believed in the idea of working rather than the idea of thinking of work and then backing off from it.

“There are two wolves in a fight. One represents love and hope. The other one represents hatred and anger. Which one of these wolves wins the fight? The one you feed.” — A Cherokee Legend
Life on earth is mortal. There is a time limit. How would you want to spend this time? Only thinking, not practicing, about the things you would and could have done? Or making your dreams come true using dedication and productivity?
“This life is yours to mold. Enjoy, live, be productive and be phenomenal.”