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Agree that everyone chooses for himself how to act in a particular situation, for example, to run through a red traffic light or to wait for a green light. Give way to an elderly person on the bus or pretend not to notice him. Pretend you’re asleep or stare at your phone pretending you’re seriously engaged in something.

In the same way, someone has chosen for himself the widespread position that everything bad that happens in our country is the fault of officials and the president. And they will beat their chests that if he were president, everything would change in the country at once and life would be better.

Every day we all find in our heads a lot of answers to questions that no one has asked us. But we think it’s important or interesting. We think about stories we’ve heard from our friends, about problems in our family, in our relatives, about problems at work. About shows and movies that interest us. About the news we read and see on the internet, not to mention the endless stream of information from mobile apps, video channels and social networks.

All of this certainly affects us. Our choices and our lives. And, as a rule, we don’t take it seriously.

But we can choose which questions are worth thinking about and which are not worth paying attention to.

Perhaps some of you have at least once thought about these questions: “Why do I live? What is my mission in this life? What is my destiny? What is the meaning of life? Why exactly is this happening to me?”

Or a series of questions like these: “How do I become successful? How can I realize my dream? What profession should I choose? Where should I go to study? What should I be? How do I become famous? How to become rich?”

I deliberately separated these questions because they differ in ideology. And of course, by the age of the person. As people age, their opinions and their beliefs change, just as their living conditions change and their questions change accordingly.

The main difference between these questions is what they focus on. The first set of questions are questions whose answers will not bring monetary rewards and most likely will not improve your financial situation. These answers will lead to new questions that require a meticulous approach and often lead us to dead ends. And that is why people do not want to look for answers to them, because not everyone is ready to dig into themselves, much less to change. Work on yourself, look for sources of knowledge and self-development. Therefore, people refer them to rhetorical or philosophical questions. To just speculate on this topic without making concrete decisions. It seems to talk about it, and it is already good, especially if you argue with another person, proving your rightness.

The second block is questions, the answer to which gives a concrete guide to action, which should be done now. And most importantly, these questions solve the material situation of a person. That is, our material well-being depends on the solution of these questions. Will we starve or will we be fed and warm. Many “spiritualized people” will say that all these issues are the embodiment of the modern inquiry of our ego. The lust for material goods and wealth. Gaining popularity and fame in the eyes of others. To be more socially relevant than others, or, we can say, more simply, to be special, not like everyone else. Becoming better than others. To become richer than others, and so on.

You have to agree that after these words, it already begins to smell of pride and ego. And in order not to go to extremes, we need to keep a balance. It is like the story about Buddha, who was sitting on the bank of the river under a big tree and meditating, renouncing all worldly goods. And by chance he heard musicians floating along the river talking to each other. One of the musicians taught his student: “If you pull a string too tightly, it will break. If you pull a string too loosely, you won’t be able to play.” It was then that the realization of the Middle Way came to him: Truth is in the balance between extremes.

The most interesting thing is that throughout our lives we are constantly making choices that directly depend on what questions we put before ourselves at any given moment in our lives. And this choice influences our life path.

We make choices all the time, from what we eat for breakfast to what time to set the alarm clock.

And that would be okay if it were easy. But in fact, we make choices on automatic, without thinking about what this choice, this decision, will affect in the future. And of course, as a consequence, we live in a series of days and events woven from our small decisions and choices. And when most of the decisions we make on automatic, we are in a state of “swamp” or, as it is commonly said, we are adrift. And unfortunately, this suits us. Why bother and think unnecessarily, if we can live like everyone else. And we are taught to live like everyone else by TV, Internet and social networks, where we are told: take a mortgage, buy products at low prices with incomprehensible composition and have more rest. Watch soap operas, drink beer, eat sausages and have babies, and so on. I’m not talking about movie heroes, showbiz stars, from whom people take an example.

From all this we can draw a simple conclusion: we are confused and do not understand what we really need. As a consequence, we do not understand what we need to do to change ourselves and our lives. And often we don’t even want to change. We just want to consume, have all the benefits of life and still be ourselves.

Why am I telling you this?

Because we all need to realize one simple truth. We can think that tomorrow everything will change, that we will be successful in business, that we will buy a new house, a car, go on vacation to the sea or create a family with a loved one. And we believe it, we think about it, we say to ourselves: I think about it, so I will materialize it in my life. After all, “thought is material”, so everyone says. The main thing is to believe in yourself and everything will work out.

Do these words sound familiar? I am sure that everyone is familiar with this expression. It has become fashionable to motivate yourself, to say that the Universe hears you and you just have to ask and everything will come to you.

But in fact nothing happens. People have become very lazy. They think that, here, they have drawn a map of desires or pasted on the wall pictures with houses and expensive cars, and it is possible to stop here. After all, they did not just think and ask the Universe, they also drew and hung their desires in front of themselves. To look at it every day and think about it.

Now, after reading this and perhaps seeing yourself from the outside, you realize that this is silly. We think we are changing our lives, yet in real life we have been living as we have been living. We do not change our lifestyle, our habits, and, most importantly, we do not take concrete actions.

Because someone told us that all you have to do is want, believe in yourself, visualize or ask God, and it will come to you.

And when time passes and nothing happens, we find excuses, blaming everything on officials, bureaucrats, high taxes, government, wife, brother, friend, competitors, everyone is to blame for your dream not coming true. After all, you did everything right as you were told, thought, believed, asked, visualized, etc.

Back in high school, I realized that little things play an important role in life. But I underestimated the power of choice. While you are young, you think that you will live forever and have time for everything in your life. And so you can spend time on this and that, and put something off for later. Give in to the general trend, be part of the culture, watch TV shows and movies because everyone watches them. Read books that were recommended to you, go to a sports club because your friend or neighbor goes there. Go out with friends in the evening or hang out in night bars and clubs. Get married, have children and live like all “normal people”.

And only time shows us whether we made the right choice earlier. And what result we got at the end of our life.

Unfortunately, we begin to think about time when we are adults, looking back at the years we have lived and making certain conclusions. Now it becomes clear why parents always try to protect their children from their own mistakes of youth. But children often take them at bayonet, fight with them. And as a result, they get their own bumps on the head.

Therefore, the “choice” should be taken seriously, the earlier a person realizes this, the faster he can put his life in order. After all, in the end a person is not defined by his qualities, but only by his choice.

But how to understand all this to a modern person who is in a constant information storm? How can he understand his life and start living by his own rules?

And here I suggest you take a short pause. Imagine that you and I are sitting in a spacious, bright room, the air is filled with the fragrance of summer flowers, you can hear birds singing outside the window. You are not disturbed or distracted by anything. At some point you catch yourself thinking that you really like it here.

After a couple minutes, I ask you to have a pen and a piece of paper ready so that you can make the necessary notes.

“Well, let’s get on with it, my friend!”