I’ve always been jealous of vets. The reason being, they can see into the future. Don’t tell me I’m full of shit, because I’ve seen it. At primary school, all the kids who said they wanted to be a vet, haven’t waivered from that path.
You ask any vet (though don’t harm an animal just to get an audience with one) and they’ll tell you that they’ve never wanted to be anything else.
For the rest of us guys though, we’re left wondering what the hell to do with this mind, body and soul we’ve been lumbered (or blessed) with. We’re here, we might as well do something fulfilling with it…
But, finding that fulfillment is tough.
I hear a lot of men complaining that they are bored and fed up. I’ve been guilty of it myself. At What Men Do we are aware of how much time can be frittered away with such passive acceptance. It’s the mindset of a victim. We are told that times are tough, but that’s no excuse for letting your one shot at a meaningful life fritter away. If times are tough, get tougher.
Billy Ocean once sang: “When the going gets tough, the tough get rough.”
At WMD we were talking about this recently, and what we all had in common was that at some point, when this feeling of stagnation had set in, we’d all done something. Something – anything – to force a change.
The opportunities to answer our prayers of a purpose, a ‘raison d’etre’ hadn’t arrived, but opportunities for change had. They’re always here. Whether it was jacking in our jobs or moving overseas, we’d all ‘thrown it out there’, in the hope that by not putting up with things
as they were, the universe might just throw us something back.
And, sure enough, a few shit-scary stories later,
we’re all still here and better off for taking our destiny out of the clutches of some excuse.
If you’re currently wondering when the universe is going to throw you something, our advice would be to throw something in its direction instead. If you never throw the ball, it will never be thrown back. And while we’re on about Balls, at least that way you’ve got your Life by the Balls.
It’s either that, or become a vet.
I was very confused when in your first sentence you said “vet.” For the whole paragraph I was wondering how anyone knows they want to go into the Service at that young of an age. The second paragraph made more sense.
The idea that “destiny” is something that you influence, control and choose is a powerful idea- it changes you from a passive participant in your life to an active protagonist. Good stuff.