Brother -
In part 1, we talked about understanding what you truly want and not creating self-limitations on what that can be. For part 2, let's talk about the verse you finished your school paper with:
So you're thinking of your future
Your thinking of some old past
And it's your time to shine
So what you gonna go and leave behind?
It's powerful. It talks about being present and taking action.
On being present, there is a quote I like:
"Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles. It empties today of its strength."
On taking action, there is a poetic quote from Gandhi:
"Whatever you do in life will be insignificant, but it's important that you do it anyway."
Now it would be easy to share some quotes and end the note saying, "Just follow your dreams, Brother." Life isn't that simple, though. Also, it would likely get you to stop opening up future emails from me, and I'm not quite ready to change the name to "Notes to my Mother."
To give you some more practical advice, let me share with you a mental model that I've recently been using on some rather large life decisions related to "taking action." It's from Jeff Bezos, and it's called the regret minimization framework.
You project yourself forward to when you'll be 80 and look back on life, wanting to have minimized the number of regrets you'll have.
For Bezos, he applied it in his early thirties when he had two options ahead of him. Continue a successful finance career or make the jump to start a company on the back of the internet craze. He concluded that he would not regret it if he tried and failed, but he might regret it if he never tried at all.
This framework goes beyond starting a company. For you, maybe it's moving to Colorado, asking that cute girl on a date, or taking a spontaneous trip ahead of you.
For me, I've used it on large career moves, asking Katia on that first date, and much smaller items as well.
Let me leave you with a quote and a question.
On your journey through life, make sure your biography has at least one extraordinary chapter.
-Unknown
In [X] years, will you regret not having done [Y]?
Enjoy the dance,
Nate