Be Active In Your Life

The first half of No. 5 Tuesday, April 3, 1750from Samuel Johnson's The Rambler. The Rambler is a periodical published by Samuel Johnson every Tuesday between the years 1750 and 1752. In his articles he discussed ideas on things like morality, literature, society, politics, and religion. The bold portions were written by Samuel, and the rest is my paraphrasing. Feel free to offer your own interpretations. You can leave a comment or e-mail me at iitimmytii@aol.com

“EVERY man is sufficiently discontented with some circumstances of his present state, to suffer his imagination to range more or less in quest of future happiness, and to fix upon some point of time, in which he shall, by the removal of the inconvenience which now perplexes him, or the acquisition of the advantage which he at present wants, find his condition of life very much improved.”

We are all always dissatisfied with something going on in our lives. This is understandable. In fact, this is an excellent attitude to have so long as we look upon each problem in a positive, progressive manner. However, we often neglect constructive thoughts and actions in order to focus on a point in time by which we suppose that our discontentment with will be all better.

“When this time, which is too often expected with great impatience, at last arrives, it generally comes without the blessing for which it was desired; but we solace ourselves with some new prospect, and press forward again with equal eagerness.”

All the while, we concentrates on that time arriving, ignoring solutions as they bob under our noses. Then, when this better time finally comes, it is rarely what we expected. We didn’t put much effort into actually solving the problem. Somehow, we imagined that we could will the dilemma away. So, we comfort ourselves with a fresh suggestion. We simply focus on another point in the future with a new, more profound enthusiasm that things will be different.

“It is lucky for a man, in whom this temper prevails, when he turns his hopes upon things wholly out of his own power; since he forbears then to precipitate his affairs, for the sake of the great event that is to complete his felicity, and waits for the blissful hour with less neglect of the measures necessary to be taken in the mean time.”

It is by chance if things work out with this method. It is foolish to believe that we should remain happy by refraining from positive thought or action. Rather than put so much energy into wishing something gets better, we must focus on how we want things to be, plan a rational solution, and carry out a mission towards our goal. Under the first method, we would waste away and direction would be hard to come by. If we surrender control over our lives, happiness can only come by luck. We must be active in the solutions to our problems. They lie within us. Either we must provide them, our we have to realize when they have been provided for us. Either way, we cannot simply wait for things to fall into our laps. From girlfriends and boyfriends to jobs to money to friends to spouses to family, we have find a way to fix things.

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