Butterfly Effect
Imagine this – Imagine that you’re able to look and expand across multiple different time lines and see multiple different lives of yourself in the future. Each of them different based on different life decisions you’ve made. Maybe you’re a world champion fighter, or a school teacher, or maybe you live insolation as a practicing monk. Perhaps you’re broken and depressed, maybe you have no friends or family left because you’ve abused them. Any of these are possible because were imagining about the infinite different possibilities of the outcome of life. The limits of what could happen are literally infinite.
Then there is the life you’re currently living. The life that you’re living in the present right now, the one that has you reading these lines. Now, instead of thinking of all these possible different outcomes in the future of life take a moment and think back. Yes, I know we can’t change the past and that’s the point. Think about all the decisions you’ve made, good and bad, that have gotten you to here now. That have shaped you as a human being. It’s funny but when we look back we are acutely aware of all the things we could have done or said differently.
If I had only done this or that things could be different now…
This is like the concept of The Butterfly Effect. If we could time travel and we went back and changed one little thing, it could or would have a changed everything as we know it up to this point. That one small change will create a much larger difference in later time. On the more extreme side, if you accidentally squashed a bug that wasn’t killed before it could change the ecosystem or world advancements – yes, I know, extreme. On the not so extreme side, you could go back and end a shitty relationship earlier or avoid a critical accident and things in present life would be improved. The butterfly effect, every change has a much larger effect.
Generally, I think The Butterfly Effect is well known and understood idea that bounces around in society and most especially when we speak about the possibilities of time travel. Now, lets get back to all those awesome lives we imagined at the beginning.
Some of those awesome lives might be out of reach but not all of them. We understand quite well that if we went back in time and changed a few small things that we might be living a much different and potentially better life now. So then, why is it so hard for us grasp this concept in the present when we discuss our future. Right, we don’t have the hindsight yet. Rubbish! This simply results because we have a lack goals or structure in our life. Over the years I’ve come to learn and realize that we as a people, for the most part, are ok to just float along in life and be content in what we have – but often wishing we had more.
I am here to tell that you can have more. You can be more. You can be better. You can be happier. You can have a different life. It simply takes patience and focus. You must be willing to sit down and have an honest conversation with yourself about what it is you don’t like and what you want to change. Then you need to assess what you want and how you’re going to get there. This is where the importance of structure comes in and why it is so very important to set goals for yourself and check them frequently. I believe as a species, we need objectives to conquer to find happiness, but we also need structure to support us along the way. This is especially true in modern life when we have so, so many ways to be distracted and pulled off course. You must write down the things you want out of life and then create smaller goals on how you’re going to get there.
Just imagine if someone gave you a ladder and said, if you get to the top you can have the life you want. You would climb that ladder faster than any human ever has. Now, imagine that when you put your foot on the first rung of the ladder you were suddenly frozen in place and now you realize that on each rung of this ladder is a sub goals or objectives – consider them to almost be a like a side mission in a video game. These are actionable goals you must conquer before you can have that life you want because you can’t simply go from A to Z without doing the work in the middle. The action steps that are acting like the steps on the ladder are simply the stepping stones that will ultimately help you reach your destination but if you don’t take the time to think ahead and then work backwards, it is going to be very difficult for you to understand how to get to your dream life.
This is true for all major goals. There is almost always a subsequent task you must complete before you can tackle something major. For instance, you might say I want to pay of the $50,000 of debt I have. Well, that’s a fantastic goal but you can’t just save all year and hope you come up with an enough cash. You also don’t want to wait for 10 or 15 years by only making the minimum payment. If you want to reach this goal you’re going to have to plan. Pay off X bill first, and then this bill, or maybe I need to pick X number of extra shifts or cancel X membership. Maybe it means all of these things – I don’t know. What I do know, is that if you want to actualize that goal and see it come true without it taking a decade you’re going to need a plan in place.
This is true for your dream life as well. It wont be easy and you’re going to have to make some hard decisions and sacrifices and might even have to learn a thing or two about yourself but I promise you this, if you can look back in 5, 10, 15 or 20 years and see that you’re living the life you once only dreamed about – you’re going to thank me.
You get there by making small, focused, and consistent changes over time. By not giving into the temptation of the now and staying focused on what you ultimately want in the future. This is basically the butterfly effect, except in the reverse. Small changes now will result to drastically larger changes in the later future.
You know what kind of life you want to live. You know the kind of life you dream of. So, start making the changes to get there now. No matter how small they are, if you’re focused consistent with your decision to be better it will all work out. So, sit down, write out what you want, plan, and get after it.