COLUMN: Life is meant to be driven

Recently, I received a letter from myself in the mail.

In 10th grade, my teacher at the time told us she would keep them for 10 years, and mail them back to us. She asked us to write down a business plan for our lives, self-address the envelope, seal it and turn it back in to her.

By lunch that day, I had forgotten about the assignment until it showed up at my house last month.

There was a note on the back explaining that my teacher no longer was teaching at my high school and was afraid of misplacing the letters, so she mailed them early.

I read the letter from my 15-year-old-self and giggled at it’s simplicity. “Be happy…find the good boys not the bad ones … be successful …”

These were all part of my business plan, tactics I wrote down to teach myself to manage my life.

Life management today is a little different than it was when I was 15.

It is a little more extensive, definitely more complicated and it is no longer written down in a sealed envelope. It is a process.

But it’s still important and I’m still in charge of how and where it ends up.

Life is not meant to be fixed, cured or patched up along the way; life is meant to be managed, conducted and driven.

I have a close friend who is the manager of multiple businesses and when she goes to work every day, she sits in an office by herself.

However, she has to maintain control of her work performance, her interaction with clients, her capital, her commitments, her finances and her decisions. Those same qualities of control are necessary in life management.

As the manager of your life, the objective is clear: manage your life in a way that creates results.

You do not have employees, sometimes you may have very little capital to go off of, the track you pick is your decision and if managed correctly the end result is most likely never achieved. Success is a moving target.

The resources you use in life management are up to you, your friends, spouse, education, job and status are all up to you.

You must require more of yourself, no company thrives off of achieving the bare minimum.

With graduation approaching I am frequently asked, “So, what’s your plan?” In other words, how are you going to move up so you don’t get trampled by those who will move on over you?

My answer is always indefinite and I always hear the same response in my head.

If you don’t have an answer, you probably don’t have a plan. If you don’t have a plan, someone will pick one for you.

While talking with my roommates recently we were discussing our plans for the future using the “well, we’ll just see what happens” approach.

This approach usually ends up being pretty boring.

I don’t know any director who walked onto a set and said, “well, we’ll just see what happens,” and ended up with a blockbuster hit.

Life is meant to be driven and every day you are the driver.

You choose whether to stay parked, or switch gears.

Pass it on.

Emma Tippetts is a senior in law and constitutional studies and print journalism.

Comments can be sent to etippetts@cc.usu.edu