Preparing for the Future

I’m preparing for the future, there is no other way around it. I’m not just talking about tomorrow–although I have an event that I am emceeing, so I should be finalizing my preparations for what I will be talking about–I’m talking about the future of my life beyond age 40. Seeing as I am only 32, what I aspire to do in my mid-life is going to take the next eight years to set the foundation for, primarily because the life I want to have is a lot different than the life I live now.

Education

As I learn more about who I am, I realize how much education matters to me. I recently came across a Master’s program from Fielding Graduate University called “Media Psychology and Social Change.” I participated in an informational webinar on Wednesday and was blown away at how much this is program is inline with my desire to understand and communicate the impact of media on society and cultures. Fielding even has a doctorate in Media Psychology which dives more into theory and research, but for now I’m going to plan on beginning the Master’s program in 2012.

I have some prepping to do regarding finances, but until then this vision of pursuing “Media Psychology and Social Change” gives me something to look forward to and prepare for.

Speaking

One of my life’s ambitions is to one day speak at a TED Conference. Many don’t know what a TED Talk is, but they are 18 minutes of pure bliss, jam-packed with wisdom and insight from some of the world’s greatest thinkers, philosophers, scientists, filmmakers and entrepreneurs. You can see the majority of the past TED Talks for free on TED.com. Check out the site if you have a few hours to kill.

This definitely won’t happen tomorrow. Speaking has been a recent addition to my life this year, so I have A LOT to learn. But the more I do it, the more I love it. If that is the case today, I can only imagine my passion increasing as I continue to fine-tune and practice the art and craft of public speaking.

Writing

I love to write. It’s something that has been deeply rooted at my core since middle school. One day, I want to write a book, maybe even more than one. The best advice that I heard recently was this: “If you want to write, write.” Pretty simple and it is advice that I daily try to adhere to as I write two blog posts, one personal and one business-related. I have the beginnings of a book in the form of an outline and I see myself writing that in the next year or two, because I want to write it.

The truth is that as I nurture the desire to write books by daily writing, I see myself being able to fulfill this dream of writing books in the not-so-distant future.

Teaching

The final area of the future that I want to work towards is teaching at the college-level. I am an avid reader and consider myself to be a life-long learner. I love passing along the things that I learn in order to inspire and educate others.

I want to help inspire a generation of artists, photographers and filmmakers to not only make beautiful and meaningful works, but to understand the impact those works have on people.

There is an old saying, “those that can’t do, teach.” The more I look at the examples of my mother-in-law (a talented artist that teaches art to middle schoolers) and my dad (a seasoned business professional teaching business to college students), I see the error and fallacy of that figure of speech. It should really be, “those that do, teach.”

Something To Light My Fire

This a brief vision of the future that I am preparing for. It’s going to take a lot of hard work to get there, but it feels good to have something to look forward to beyond the day-to-day life that can be dull and rote.

Now that I have given you a taste for my future, how are you preparing for your future? Are you dreaming big dreams or just accepting mediocrity and mundanity?