In ancient Greece there once lived a wise philosopher, he was greatly admired by his peers and extremely smart for his time, indeed he was considered a genius. There was a young man who looked up to this philosopher with great admiration, he wanted to know everything he knew, and become great like he was. The young man approached the philosopher one day seeking to become an understudy. The philosopher informed the young man that he would not teach him - he was not a teacher but a philosopher. The young man persisted, he asked the philosopher every morning for a lesson, anything would do. This went on for several months. Finely one day the philosopher agreed and informed the young man that his first lesson would be taught at the beach the following morning, he was to meet him there at dawn sharp. The young man didn't sleep much that night, he was anticipating the great lesson he would learn about the ocean, or maybe the sand, or maybe some deep insight to the mating ritual of crabs; it didn't matter, he was finely going to learn something. He showed up at the beach at dawn sharp as agreed, but the philosopher was no where to be seen. He scanned the beach up and down several times, he gazed as far as he could down the road to town hoping his teacher was simply late, nothing. A little discouraged he sat down and gazed out into the ocean, and then he saw him, or his head rather, about seven paces out into the water, submerged all the way up to his chin. The young man was surprised but excited, he leaped up and ran out to his new teacher as fast as he could. When he got within arms length of the philosopher, the philosopher grabbed him by the arm and twisted him under the water, the young man struggled, but the philosopher was fast and agile, he had a firm grip. The young man was unprepared to be forced under water so quickly, he only had half a lung full of air. 10 seconds passed, then 20 then 30, but he could not free himself from the old man. Panic started to set in, he realized that he was about to die, his vision started to tunnel, he desperately needed some air. Just before he was about to give up and take in a lung full of sea water the philosopher let him free. The young man, quite frightened, swam as fast as he could to shore. He yelled out to the philosopher and asked, "What was that for, are you crazy?" to which the old man replied "That was your lesson. When you want knowledge as much as you just wanted air, you'll find it"

I heard this story a few years back on a boy scout trip I believe. It has stuck with me ever sense. I guess it has come to mind lately because of how much my life has changed in the past few months. Now that I'm married and looking to the future for kids and a family, I'm forced to think a lot more about how I'm going to provide for my family. I can't keep living paycheck to paycheck for example, with a joint bank account that's nearly impossible. I found a really good budgeting methodology that I've adopted and am really excited about using. I've also been really interested in purchasing a house (or letting the bank purchase it for me rather *sigh*) I'll be a first time home buyer and don't have a lot of money to use as a down payment. I'm realizing that I can't just keep living in the now, I really need to start looking to the future. My whole mentality is starting to change, I don't know exactly how to put it into words. I no longer work just to work, I'm constantly thinking of ways to improve my marketable job skills, I'm more on the lookout for extra income sources. I guess in short, I'm becoming responsible, I know it's weird!

It's so easy to live our lives on a daily basis, only thinking about what's available to us now, and by now I mean right now. I'm learning that it doesn't take that much time or effort to plan for the future. Gaining motivation and a desire to improve ourselves, I believe has to come from within, it cannot be taught to us. Like the young man in the story, when we want to improve ourselves and our surroundings as much as we want air to live, then opportunities will present themselves, or maybe it's as simple as noticing things we didn't (or couldn't) notice before... food for thought.