My Personal Constitution

Whenever I see a homeless person on the side of the road, or hear a story of someone who lived a perfectly normal life then ended up in jail, I always think to myself- "how did they get into that position? How did their life come to that?" Granted, for some people who end up like that, it is not always their fault. There are many different scenarios and circumstances for each individual. However, one thing each of those people, and every person in the world has in common is that they never planned to end up like that. As a child we all dream of success. We dream of money, jobs, and a happy family. We never see ourselves in jail, or living in poverty, so why are there so many people who do end up in circumstances that they never imagined themselves in? This unit really gave me a fresh perspective and opened my eyes as to why that might be. They neglected to set goals and ultimately lost view of what was most important to them.

A personal constitution is something that keeps us on track. It establishes goals, non-negotiable values, and daily things we can to become the people we hope to be. My personal constitution includes things like putting my family first, being charitable and honest, becoming financially stable, and more. Now that I have that personal constitution, I have a point of reference that I can always turn to in order to self-evaluate and see how my life is progressing. Everyone in life wants to be successful and happy and I truly believe that each person has the potential to do that. I know that because we have a loving Heavenly Father who wants our happiness and is willing to help us achieve that if we simply do our part. The little things that we do each day develop our character and our character ultimately develops who we become which then influences how our lives turn out. Whenever things start to get rocky, we should take a step back and do a self evaluation. Am I happy in what I'm doing? Is it fulfilling? Am I developing the personal attributes I want to possess? Am I progressing towards reaching both my long and short term goals? If the answer to any of these are no, then I know there's something I need to change. We all have a great potential but reaching potential takes discipline and planning. By establishing guidelines, we are able to keep our lives moving in the direction that we want them to go and can achieve a happy and successful life. We will never have to look back on our lives with regret and wonder how we ended up where we are. We will look back with satisfaction knowing that where we got to was not easy, but worth it.