Live is a journey

Live is a journey. This is how I looked back at the time when I left my High School and move on into college, started a career and a family. Some people may have a life journey not in that particular order. Due to different personal circumstances, they may start off their journey with having a career then go to college at the same time they started having a family. However, regardless of the milestones of the life journey, life is still a journey between an origin point moving towards an end point.

In normal sense, a successful journey would require four elements. These will be

1. planning
2. provisions
3. direction
4. assessment

These four elements are required as we are provided with limited resources. Resources such as time, energy and money are limited regardless of the quantity one has.

Time is limited as opportunities do not stand still and need to be grabbed on the go. It also does not help us as opportunities are also being sought by others who are also in a rush to complete their life journey. There is golden opportunity, second or third opportunity or just a normal opportunity, each brings different value to different people. The more one grabs opportunities, the higher likelihood one will attain success. Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange grabbed the opportunity to set up a whistleblower website with amusing gossips of important people freely talking their mind to other important people all over the world. This he does in the pretext of free information and has been one of the most popular world news towards the end of 2010. Though he was in jail with a rape charge, however he is currently talking to people who want to publish his story for USD1.3 million! I believe this is not the end of his venture into making money.

The other resource, energy; is also limited as it comes with one's youthfulness. High energy comes with a youthful body. This must be true otherwise you will have Wayne Rooney playing for Manchester United until he is 60 or 70. Imagine that.

In the other hand money is also limited as a lot of people would want to take it away from you either via legal or illegal means. People who would want to legally take the money away from us will be the shopkeepers at the mall, mobile phones charges, tolls at highways, the Utilities Company, etc, etc. People who would want to illegally take the money away from us will be pyramid syndicate pretending to be MLM operators, other conman, pick pockets, thieves and robbers.

Coming back to the four elements of planning, provisions, direction and assessment mentioned earlier which are important to ensure a successful life journey. Planning will consist of a target or several targets with rough or detail plan to achieve it or them. Target without plan is mere dream. However if target and plan are combined together, the likelihood of it being achieved will be higher. Planning will also include identification of external forces that may post a threat to the journey. The more proactive this identification, the better.

As in other journey, the second element; provisions; will be used to ensure that the journey is sustainable. If you are driving from KL to Penang, you will need a well maintained car, fuel, money for food lodging and shopping! A mobile phone or I Phone, I Pad or what have you is also important to be connected via facebook :). In a successful life journey, provisions will be a good education and a high drive to succeed. A good education will be the key to open a career opportunity while a high drive to succeed will be the key sustainer to climb the corporate ladder.

The third element, direction; is like a compass or road signs in a journey. To travel to Penang from KL, one will need to take the North South Highway or Federal Freeway towards the north. In life journey, direction is to generate the effort to plan for the next move in a career. If you are working and started off as an Executive, you need to direct your effort immediately for the next move to a Managerial position. Likewise if you are venturing into a small scale business, the next direction is to make yourself ready to venture into a medium scale business and then a large scale medium.

The fourth element, assessment; is like a map or navigator to gauge whether the journey is still moving towards its target or targets. This is important as a slight degree of error will take the journey off its target. In life, assessing the other three elements planning, provisions and direction will ensure that journey will end up with a success. Just like other journeys, there will be external factor that may post a threat to the journey plan, provisions and directions. For example in a career, if the coveted job is not within the particular organisation you are in, a career move will be one of the options to take. If you are in business, if a business transaction is deem to fail, it would be better to abandon it and scout for another. The requirement to make amendments to planning, provisions and direction may be minor or major. The decision is entirely yours with or without consultation with others.

Have a nice trip in your life journey :)