How’s Your Life Goin’ These Days?

I remember watching an old comedy western movie from 1969 called Paint Your Wagon. It’s a story about a dying Gold Rush-era mining town in California. Near the end there’s a scene where actors Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood are watching the exodus of mules, wagons, and people who are giving up and moving on.

Eastwood turns to Marvin and says, “I guess there are two kinds of people in the world—them that go, and them that stay. Ain’t that the truth?”

Lee Marvin ponders the miserable parade of folks leaving town and finally growls, “Naw, that ain’t the truth. There are two kinds of people, okay, but everybody’s goin’. Only difference is them goin’ somewhere, and them goin’ nowhere.”

Where are you goin’?

Do you have a clear “somewhere” guiding your days, a shiny goal that energizes you and gives meaning to your life? Or does it seem like you’re goin’ nowhere?

Don’t turn your back on your dreams. Don’t sell out your future and yield to the tedium of aimless days. Don’t settle. Instead, dust off one of your premier ambitions that’s currently goin’ nowhere and pursue it with a vengeance.

Sure, chasing a glory goal may scare you. But try interpreting that fear as excitement—the two emotions are actually very similar in terms of bodily sensations. Frame your feelings as excitement and use that energy to fuel the pursuit of your special “somewhere.”

People do this all the time. They defy their fears and lean in to their deepest longings. The great artist Georgia O’Keefe said, “I have been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from a single thing that I wanted to do.”

Look, this is the one and only life you get here on this planet. This is it. Start goin’ toward a “somewhere” that pulls at your heart, a goal that fascinates you and makes living more fun. Honor that sparkling ambition that’s wasting away inside. Because nobody else can do this for you.

And because you can.