If It Is To Be

“If it is to be, it is up to me.”  I believe that.
It is too easy to allow my life to be ruled by others.  The thing for me is, if I do not know what I want, someone else knows what they want for me.  Too often it is a case of being used as a piece in their game.
It seems that was the case often in war.  Many went not because they wanted to, but because they had to.  I will always believe in following legitimate orders, but I am not so keen on doing stuff against my will.  Admittedly sometimes my unwillingness is born of nothing more than ignorance, and what was commanded was best for me anyway.
I am big on choice.  There is no doubt to me, that if I let others rule me, I will potentially be tossed about like a wave.  I guess it is called knowing my own mind.  There are people I happily follow, and things I happily do, but the bottom line for me is it is my choice to do so.  Whether I like it or not, I will always be a pawn in someone’s game.
Unfortunately, I know someone who tends to be led by the nose.  Things that happen tend to be random and accepted.  Things that happen to me can be random, but I do not need to accept everything that comes my way.  That is my choice. 
I know of others who’s goals tends to be vague.  What is in mind will be done, but often something else comes up and is attended to straight away and takes ages.  In my mind at least I need to attend to what I have in mind first, and come back to other stuff that needs doing. For me, if I have done that, then if nothing else happens, at least I have made progress in the things I have in mind to achieve.
I collect stamps.  It amazes me how many people I hear about that do the same.  Rather than hearing about it, and it going in one ear and out the other, (which happens regarding many things), I take a note of it for future reference.  I accept it.
There are other things I don’t accept.  It is not necessarily that they are wrong in themselves, it is just they do not fit within my own goals.  They do for others, but not for me.  If I try to achieve everything, chances are, I will achieve nothing.
So often I hear about people involved in research.  The latest I heard about was people involved in research to invent something that will minimize Alzheimer’s.  They had a big publicity blitz because a significant advance had been made.  That tells nothing of the hours and lifetimes spent looking for results.  Knowledge was built up bits at a time.  Everyone involved could have done something else.  There were no doubt many things that vied for their attention.  They chose to discard the potential distractions in pursuit of their goal.
I reckon my goals are simpler and often involve just getting through this day.  But whatever my goal is, I know that to achieve it, I need to avoid what can easily distract.