What Are You Making?

Another year is underway.  Have you made your New Years resolutions yet? It’s a common question that you have already heard many times this year.  It seems to be the popular time to think of, and set, some new goals for your life. The most common ones seem to involve fitness. For instance, more people join gyms and go on diets in January than any other time in the year.  Which is a great resolution however, this year I want you to think a little deeper than just skin deep.

 

If you are a teenager this is not just another year.  Your teen years are extremely important to the rest of your lives.  During these years you are constructing the foundation of choices that the rest of your lives will be based on.  These years are forming everything that is to come.  Where you will be in the next 5, 10, 20, or 50 years will be greatly determined by the choices that you make during these critical years.

 

If your teenage years are the foundation to your future, what do you think your future is looking like?  I want to encourage you to stop for a moment and evaluate your work as an engineer so far.  How strong is your foundation?  Will you be able to stand on it and achieve the life you have always wanted?  Will you get to go to college?  Will your dreams come true?  Will you have a strong marriage one day?  Will you be an alcoholic or drug addict?  All of this and more will be greatly determined by the choices you are making now.  Don’t be deceived, your choices during your foundational years are shaping the future of your life!

 

This new year look to the future, but also look at your past.  Evaluate the quality of choices that you have been placing on your foundation.  Take a moment, think about your future, and look at the foundation that you have built so far.  Is it going to get you where you want to go? Everybody has messed up before. It’s like the famous old philosopher Hannah Montana once said “Everybody makes mistakes.”  But that is no excuse!

 

Don’t keep making bad choices and just hope that somehow things will just “work out.” Stop immediately!  Your future is at stake!  Learn from your past mistakes but don’t dwell on them.  Concentrate on what you can do to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Remember, while the pages of your past are already written, the pages of your future are totally blank. Your goal this year should be to end it with a stronger foundation than you started with, starting …………………NOW!

 

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.” (Proverbs 16:3)

 

—Trey Talley

Trey Talley is a leader of Team Impact, a gifted motivational speaker who has a unique ability to speak compelling truth to young people with love and sincerity, and the author of “Teen Construction Zone: Building a strong foundation for a great life”. www.TreyTalley.com