There once lived a very skilled medicine man in a certain village. His skill to cure all sorts of previously incurable illnesses left him renowned in many villages. In a certain village a few villages away from the medicine man’s own village, a man’s family is struck with disaster. The man’s wife is stricken with an illness only the famous medicine man can cure. The local village’s medicine man informs the man that the wife has approximately seven days to live if the famous medicine man doesn’t give her the treatment required for the disease.
The man, knowing only the village in which the medicine man lived and the general direction in which to find this village, decided to go on this long journey. He approximated it would take a total of four days for him to reach the village and come back with the medicine man, two days for each leg of the journey. And so, with minimal supplies to last only two days as he figured he’d resupply at the medicine man’s village for the return leg of the journey. He set out in a sprint very early in the morning and by midday, he came to a fork in the road. The path he was on continued on and another path joined it which would eventually lead to another path that led to the medicine man’s village.
However, on the other side of the path leading to his desired destination lay a very dense forest. Knowing that the general direction of the medicine man’s village was southeast, he deduced that cutting through the forest would save him a day’s worth of the journey. With renewed vigour, he ventured on into the forest, constantly watching the position of the sun so as not to lose his bearings. In the late afternoon, he was sufficiently tired and he decided to rest and have his meal. All of a sudden he heard a roar that nearly rendered him deaf. Before he could process what was happening, he saw a large bear charging at him at full speed. He sprung up and took to his heels and quickly realized the error of his ways as out of the corner of his eyes, he saw three bear cubs and concluded quickly that the bear chasing him was most likely the mother. He had wandered a bit too close to the bear’s nest and mama bear was not too happy about it; now his leg muscles and lungs were paying the bitter price for it.
The bear was relentless and chased him for a good while, his saving grace came in form of a storm that had been brewing for a while. When it finally rained, the bear gave up and went back to the cubs. The man was relieved that the beast was no longer chasing him. His joy was soon drained out from his face as he realised he was now in a more dire situation. The very storm that had saved him from the bear had also doomed him in the forest. It had covered up the sun which the man had relied on for his navigation.
He did not know where he was, which direction he had come from, let alone where he was headed. In other words, he was hopelessly lost. That fact coupled with the fact that the man had left all his supplies at the bear's nest made his situation even worse. He could not afford to delay now, he quickly decided to get to higher ground to scope out the nearest village and head in that direction. However, no such luck was to be had as there were no hills tall enough to protrude the forest’s canopy and whenever he climbed a tree, his eyes wouldn’t go all that far on account of all the swinging branches in the storm.
Night fell and it became pitch dark. So he stayed put, shivering in the rain and praying for morning to come so he could be on his way. In the dead of the night, the rain finally subsided and before long, morning came. To the man’s dismay, a heavy fog had veiled the entire forest leaving him with close to zero visibility. He could barely see his own hand when he lifted it up towards his face. The sun did not come out the entire day, so he walked around aimlessly for a while still searching for higher ground. Things took a turn for the worse when the man unknowingly stepped on a bear trap on account of the low visibility of the fog. The trap promptly broke his leg, with it, shattering all hopes of ever finding the cure for his wife’s malady. He screamed in horror and pain at the prospect, but there was really nothing he could do about it.
After five days of surviving on fruits and berries and nursing his wound the best he could, the man was finally rescued by a hunter who happened upon him on his way to his daily hunt. The man was taken to the hunter’s village where he was treated and fed. The man narrated his story to the hunter who then took it upon himself to fetch the renowned medicine man for the man’s wife.
It took three days for the hunter to come back with the doctor. The medicine man further treated the man’s leg, greatly accelerating its healing process. Two days later the man was able to move, albeit in a slow fashion. He and the doctor started off for his village. It took another day for them to get to the village but alas as the man had feared in his heart all along, it was already too late. The man was informed that his wife had finally succumbed to the illness three days prior and that he had just about made it in time for her cremation ritual.
The man lamented his lack of preparedness and his rash decision-making, for such a disaster, could have been easily avoided if he had taken just a little bit more time gathering information about his destination and adequately preparing for his journey. It could have been avoided if he hadn’t foolishly sought a shortcut where none existed.
OUR JOURNEYS
We’re all people on different kinds of journeys, we’ve got different goals, motivations and aspirations. When we set our goals, we’re like the man at the beginning of his journey; we know where we want to end up, our goal (as the man knew that his objective was the famous medicine man) and we most probably know the general actions we have to take to get there ( as the man knew the general direction to the medicine man’s village was southeast). But the question begs, are these two factors enough to get us to our goals? The answer may vary from one person to the next but generally, (as you may have already guessed based on the story) no, these are necessary but not nearly enough for one to achieve one’s goals.
The road to achieving one’s dream can be treacherous, riddled with shiny attractive distractions that promise much but deliver very little to nothing and only serve to derail one from one’s initial trajectory. (kinda like the forest shortcut which promised to save the man some time but ended up doing the exact opposite) Hurdles and all kinds of challenges lie ahead in life’s road to success; when one is not adequately geared, it is very difficult to move forward.
THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO GET TO WHERE YOU WANT TO BE
A structure, in my humble opinion, is the single most efficient way of achieving one’s goals and living a fulfilled life in general (of course this has to be coupled with high levels of discipline and consistency otherwise it’s all for nought). A structure is a very well-detailed plan of execution. One could think of it as a very specific map to the medicine man’s village, nay, to his very doorstep. We all know how desperately the man could have used a map tailored specifically for his destination.
Having a proper structure towards your goals and life, in general, saves you a lot of problems that arise along the way as a result of a lack of planning.
When setting goals, one is so motivated one can barely contain oneself; one simply wants to get started and crush one’s goals quickly. This is the trap of motivation. Motivation is based on one’s emotions which are very volatile, changing on a whim. When one is hyper-motivated, one gets impatient and might neglect to plan effectively on how to get from point A to point B in an efficient manner; or one completely neglects to plan altogether. This is a fatal mistake which comes back to haunt one sooner rather than later.
Due to certain encounters along the journey, the majority of people without any proper plan of action resign and promptly relegate themselves to the class of failures, incapable of achieving anything; “might as well sit on the couch and stuff my face in with junk food while watching NetFlix, cause what’s the point?” Many a dream has been shattered in this manner, many a potential unrealised.
Without a proper structure, your new year’s resolutions won’t amount to much; you’ll find yourself relapsing by march or even earlier. A structure is not only for achieving goals, it is a necessity in one’s everyday life; without it, well; remember the lost man in the forest.
It is essential to plan out your life and to stick to that plan. Your structure can be built around your core values and principles. You can set rules that govern your life, and set boundaries which mustn’t be crossed in accordance with your own dream life.
Once you have built a structure to guide you toward your desired future, you’ll find formerly difficult decisions become easier and easier because you are clear on the path you’re taking, you are clear on what fits into your ideal life and what does not. Exercise a level of discipline that is able to give up pleasure in the short term for a bigger reward in the long term. adhering to your structure will require this of you. It might be hard to follow through with at first but once you resist the first temptation to discard your structure for quick pleasure, the second one becomes easier to overcome and the third one easier still and so forth. Before long, you’ll be formidable, a force to be reckoned with on your way to attaining your ideal life.
HOW TO CREATE A STRUCTURE IN FIVE STEPS
Know your destination clearly. define your goals and aspiration in as many specific details as you can muster. Write down the you of the future, your likes and dislikes down to the clothes you wear. that way, you know EXACTLY where you are headed. This gives you a sense of clarity on where you need to be and at what point in time.
define your core values and principles. These are unique to each individual. Examples could be family, God, friends, love and so forth. Once these are properly defined, list them in order of importance to your own life and the life you wish to attain. These will be of great help in decision-making as anything that doesn’t align with your core values is promptly discarded. It is imperative you list them in order of importance to your life just in case a scenario arises where two or more core values are clashing and you can’t make a decision; in this case, a core value that is higher on the list takes precedence, saving you a headache.
Develop self-governing rules. We all know the value of rules is preventing chaos and instilling order. The rules you set for yourself will propel you to greater heights when followed because they are made by you with your own best interest at heart. For example, if you want to be sleeping at 10 pm so as to benefit from a full seven hours of bed rest, you could set a rule such as ‘by 9 pm I should turn off all my electronic devices ’ or ' i’ll be cooking my supper at 6 pm '. Pay mind that you follow your own rules unless circumstances deem it impossible to do so.
Evolve as you grow. Motivations change as you get older and are exposed to different scenarios. Some parts of your life that you might have thought would last don’t and other parts take over. It is important to evaluate the stage you are at as a person and plan and act accordingly. Tweak things to suit your new personality, the rules are not set in stone so be flexible when the situation calls for it.
Finally, leave room for spontaneity. All work and no play, as the adage goes, make John a dull boy, or something along those lines. As stated earlier, the rules are not set in stone. Give yourself grace whenever you stumble instead of beating yourself up. Play just as hard as you work, and relieve pressure by doing spontaneous activities that make you happy but may not necessarily be part of the plan.
And with that, I bid you “adieu”. leave a comment down below to tell me your thoughts and ask your questions. like, subscribe and share to impact someone today. Have a pleasant and productive week!