A Single True/False Question Evaluation

As you know, the big theme for the 2019 year of quote essays is thinking bigger picture and living each day with a big picture perspective. The goal is that we don’t settle with the little things and the monotony of every day, but that we live every day with the future in mind. I believe this is the only way to build a legacy. Jefferson’s quote here reminded me of that, especially as I’ve been thinking of middle school coming to a close and starting high school and beginning a new chapter in my life I’ve really been thinking about this.

Reread the quote from Jefferson: “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.” Consider those little personality tests or other such self-evaluations that you’ve probably taken at some point in your life. There were like seventy-eight questions, and you had a table and you had to select whether the statement describes you very much, describes you somewhat, does not describe you somewhat, or does not describe you very much. When you finish, you read an analysis of your character. Well here’s an important question: how much does Jefferson’s quote describe you?

Let’s take the four answer choices that I presented, and boil it down to two potential choices. True and false. If the answer to that statement is “false,” that you like the past more than you like the dreams of the future you are probably living in contentment with monotony. What do I mean by that? If your past is more exciting than your future, you aren’t thinking big picture. You aren’t dreaming and you aren’t challenging the limits on what is possible. You are looking back in satisfaction, not looking forward in anticipation. Maybe fear is in play because stepping forward holds a certain degree of terror, a certain degree of risk.

But if your answer to the question is “true” you are dreaming big. Two things to understand here. First, dreaming big does not necessarily mean that you are living out the theme of 2019 to live with a future-focused mindset and actively pressing on towards bigger picture reality instead of a day-to-day survival mentality. Plenty of people dream big and still fail ultimately because they don’t do. I say all the time, there are NFL quarterbacks watching football on the couch in their parent’s basement eating potato chips for lack of work ethic. But it’s hard to do and focus on the big picture if you don’t at least dream. So it starts with a dream and that dream manifests in action that progresses towards the dream.

Second, you have to have the view that the future is going to be brighter than the past regardless of how good the past looks. How did it feel to finish a painting like The Mona Lisa? How did Marcus Zusak feel to see a book like The Book Thief on the shelves of his local bookstore? Being more successful than that in anything is difficult if not impossible. But that’s not the mindset we go in with. Regardless of how prosperous the past, the past does not concern you. Looking to the past is the enemy of big-picture centered mindset. I don’t care if you are thirteen and can’t remember the last time you spent a weekend doing anything but playing Fortnight, or you are eighty-five and have left a rich and beautiful legacy on this earth: you go with the mindset that you will make the future better, for yourself and for others around you. Whether or not it is possible isn’t really your concern. You get your mindset right and you will start to challenge the definition of the word “possible.”

So answer the true and false self-evaluation, and ask it every day. Which one are you? There are only two choices. Are you content where you are, content with survival, or are you putting yourself forward every day with your legacy and the big picture in view? Dreamers that do. That’s what we are striving for, and regardless of how bright your past, you must constantly build up for the future each and every day striving upwards for greater excellence and never settling for good enough.