We all need to know what we want before we can get it. Its that simple. Once we know what we want, we usually get it. Why? Because we find a way. That's the easy part. The hard part is figuring out what you want.
Here's what I want.
1) Life as an adventure. I don't want a 9-5, I don't want the grind, I don't want to live exactly the same life as everyone else. Go read the wiki's of pretty much anyone you admire. Odd's are, you admire them because they lived a pretty incredible life. Ernest Hemingway saw and experienced more before 25 than most people will in their life. People read his work and a little bit of him comes through in it. And it's the charisma and power built up through living the kind of life that most of us fantasize about. Turbulent, dramatic, fantastic. It's his life that makes his works stand the test of time. That's that kind of life I want. I want my future biographer to have so much to write about that he can't put it all on the page.
2) Making my living with something that's mine. My art, my buisness, what I create: that's mine. Thats what I want to use to build my life on, so that even when it's hard I can say "at least I did it my own way." This isn't to say that I can't work with others, and when need be I can't adapt my vision to co-exist with the vison of others. But at least it's my vision in the first place. It's just because someone said "jump" and I said, "how high?"
3) A life thats free. I want to live everywhere, I want to see everything, I want to meet everyone. I want to choose what part of the world works for me, what religion suits me, what language sounds the most like me when I speak it. I don't want to end up stuck somewhere that I hate because it's "secure", or locked into an idea that my culture finds acceptable when it doesn't work for me.
4) I want to do it while I'm young. It's a fact that your brain hardens as you get older. It loses it's plasticity and ability to adapt new ways of thinking and assimilate new experiences. Why do you think children can learn Mandarin as a second language easily, and 30 year olds are going to have a much harder time? I don't want to wait until I'm retired to go and visit Asia, study buddhism, learn a language or create my art. I want to do that when I'm young, keep my mind open and expose myself to as much as possible. That way, when I'm old I have something to teach that's my authentic way of seeing the world instead of just what was pushed on me.
5) I want to live a life free of useless hate. I want to give something back. I don't want to judge anything or anyone. Don't bother me with your rants about how you hate your government, organized religion, the school system, commercialism, whatever. If you don't like it, opt out. I'm from Canada, everyone I know has incredible freedom compared to 99% for the world. If you don't like something, don't participate. I'm never going to be the guy that carries an axe against some nameless "other" that is grinding down my freedom. Every thought you have is precious. Think about how much time you spend thinking about how how terrible things are. Then wonder how it's affecting your life. Try this, stop thinking about the bad and instead find the good and then tell me how much happier you are. Honestly, try it. That's the way I want to live my life.
Sure, I have smaller goals, but these are probably the biggest things I want out of life. Everything else is just a building block. I think my work shows these things, I think my art shows these things. I hope it does.
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