Get Busy

I was 17years old when I went to University. The first few weeks started slow like every new school year that I remembered from High School. It was the transitional weeks when there were no immediate exams or papers due and all you had to do was settle in by getting new books and show up for class. Those weeks were great – almost like an extension of the summer. But I also knew that any day projects with deadlines would be dropped. And then it hit all at once – work load was piling up by October. During this time in my first year of University I would reminisce about how easy High School was. I almost wished I could go back and enjoy the free time I had the year before. Second year came around and in October once again I wished I could be back in 1st year taking it easy. It was the same thing each year as being busier than the last.

Fast forward 6years… I graduated, did some traveling and then jumped into career mode. Working fulltime turned out to be very different. In fact it was busier then when I was in University. Once again I thought how great it would be to be back in school. The days when student loans seemed like free money, when you could sleep in, those afternoons off, not going to class if you didn’t want to, going to the gym with an hour off, week breaks, long Christmas vacations and summer months completely free. Wow! It was good life back then even with all the studying that had to be done. I was out of school and in the job market and it was completely different. Welcome to the real world - a world of win or loose, making it or breaking it and my self being the one who has to survive on my own.

What I have witnessed was that high school was a joke, university life a bit busier and career life way busier than what university was. I however am not in the same boat as every other individual out there. I chose a career that requires a strong work ethic if I am to survive in it and move forward. I am also a person who wants to get himself somewhere in life both professionally and financially. I strive to be the best I can be and to be able to provide an environment where I will be able to support a home with a family. So each year has therefore gotten busier and I am at my busiest right now and that is ok because in the end it will pay off. I know people who don’t want to be busy, have more down time at the same time have a family in the future. That is fine if you are financially secure and you don’t strive to be the best at what you do…

People ask me, when does it end Josh? And why do you make yourself so busy? My answer to them is that I am only 30 years young. That’s right young, meaning more energy and the only person I am responsible for is my self – hard maybe but much easier than the father and the mother who hold down careers, households and have multiple children that they take care of? It does not get easier for them especially when they do it all at once. My parents were in their early twenties when they had their children. They were studying, and building careers at the same time. There was no money and personal time for them was virtually non-existent because all efforts were diverted to raising the children and putting food on the table. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been to do all of that. That truly must be the peak of how busy one can get.

If you are like me and want to have a future family and to be able to spend time with them (before getting too old) then now is the time to put your head down, get busy and move yourself forward to setting up the future you wish to have. Understand that being busy at a young age is a reality that we must accept so that it may pay off in years to come. Being busy now is the time when we are agile and resilient. It is better to have the drive to make things happen when we are young and only have to worry about our own affairs than it is to just start putting in the work once a family has arrived. Now is your time to make your future happen.