On Becoming a Fan of Finality
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with something coming to an end. “Final” is not a bad word. Actually, it’s healthy to become a fan of finality.
There are going to be a lot of “final” moments in the near and distant future. Blackberrys and Sidekicks were the last phones to have physical keyboards, and the iPhone 7 was the last iPhone to have a headphone jack. We’re on to touchscreens and completely wireless devices. That’s finality in a nutshell. Yesterday is over, and for good reason: we’re on to better things now.
Throughout this entire book, you have hopefully changed and developed in meaningful, positive ways. Inevitably, you’ll find people that try to discourage you from doing so. They will call you a nerd for dedicating time to read and marginalize your dreams and aspirations for being too unrealistic. By becoming a fan of finality, we put the days of not reading and not having purpose permanently in the past. The days of wasting away hours at a time on social media and creating no real value for the world are over, so there’s no point in listening to those who don’t want you to change. The change has already taken place!
It’s time to make a decision. The decision is not to change tomorrow, or even today: the decision is to acknowledge that you’ve already changed. All of the distractions must be gone now. The last time that you lost your mind over a video game or television show was the last time that you’ll do that in your entire life, because you have actively made the decision to make it that way. If, hypothetically, you had been in prison, surely you would celebrate upon leaving your cell and returning to the free world. Why aren’t you celebrating at the prospect of becoming free from the unimportant so that you can succeed in fulfilling your purpose?
It may seem harsh or a bit ruthless to advocate for such a love for the end, and it is. There’s no excuse for holding on to the same bad habits, people, or influences. We know what’s good for us and what’s bad. We know what winning time looks like, and we know how to reflect on our decisions and make better ones in the future. It’s not a matter of acknowledging what’s right at this point, it’s about becoming a genuinely new person that takes new knowledge and principles and converts them into actions that mean something.
To bring this section together, you’ll need to begin practicing change and getting comfortable with a life that is not stagnant as yours might have been previously. For our purposes, let’s try giving up one bad influence in our lives for a mere seven days. You don’t have to tell them or even mention it, but that person who is constantly negative in their dialogue and has no willingness to become better: Spend some time away from them. Find other people to talk to. You’ll very quickly discover that there is little to no reason to surround yourself with the same old negative influences, other than that it is familiar and comfortable. It’s important to put positive people in your life in order to learn from them. Is your fear of change really going to stop you from doing it?
Perhaps you have a bad habit that you know serves no purpose in your life other than to distract you. Get rid of that for seven days. Again, the length of time should not be challenging. (If it is, then it should make you realize the depth of your problematic habit and push you to take further steps to fix it; you’re addicted.) Mostly, this is an experiment for yourself: are you willing to make a change, stick to it, and then call it final? If not, that’s a problem that will lead you nowhere, and will prevent you from moving at all. Don’t let yourself stagnate.