Decisions have trajectory

By Daniel Francis

Have you ever thought about your milestone moments? Milestone moments are those events that impacted you at that moment in time, continue to affect you now, and will continue to impact your future.

When we typically think of a milestone, we think of a positive event, but it can be negative as well. What are some of the milestone moments that pop into your mind?

For me, it was when I wrote and launched my first book, The Millennial Mind, a self-help book for millennials. It impacted me in that moment by helping me become a niche thought leader in my field. Anytime anyone thought of millennials they would call on me. It continues to impact me in the present. Because of my first book, authors and aspiring authors would reach out to me for help with publishing and book marketing. That helped to birth my publishing company which is helping to empower aspiring and published authors alike.

There is also no telling how this milestone will continue to impact me in the future through my growth as a publisher, author, and coach.

But what about negative milestones? I have an ex-friend who would say his negative milestone was going to his first casino. From that day, he got addicted to gambling. He started down a path of spending all his extra cash on gambling to the detriment of his life.

Later in life, his addiction took a turn into hard drugs. He was trying to chase a bigger ‘high’ than he got from gambling and well…. he found it. In the present day, after years of drug abuse, he has alienated his friends and family and refuses help from anyone.

He begs on the street for money to buy more drugs. There is no telling what the impact of this negative milestone will have in his future, but we can only hope that there is some positive intervention to turn the tide of his story.

Our decisions, big and small, have a tremendous effect on our trajectory in life. What, at the moment, might seem like a leap of faith or prioritisation of something can have short-term suffering but yield long-term results.

I remember when I was in college, I used the excuse of exams and assignments to skip Mass on a Sunday. That decision over time changed the trajectory of how I viewed my faith.

I went from a staunch Catholic who went to church on a Sunday religiously to a seasonal Catholic who went to church only on the big holidays. I could feel the distance from God growing wider and wider each week.

I had a decision to make: would I allow my current trajectory from my past poor decision-making to continue to send me down the wrong path or will I make a new decision and create a new trajectory forward?

I thought long and hard and decided to go a year without missing Mass. It was difficult because it meant swapping priorities. I did miss Mass here and there, but I was able to stick to what I set out to do for most of that year.

That one decision helped change my trajectory. I could feel my faith deepening and I felt encouraged to continue to grow and continue to prioritise my faith and relationship with God. That new decision became a positive milestone for a transformed me.

Our decisions make or break us but luckily even if we make a bad decision, there is redemption. You can see that your trajectory is not what you want it to be and make a decision that could alter everything.

It does not matter where you are in life or how bad you think your situation is, make the right decision for you. When in doubt ask God for guidance to take you on the right trajectory.

Don’t allow a negative milestone to send you down the wrong path. You have the power to make a change, and it starts with the decisions you make today.

Daniel Francis is a millennial helping othermillennials. He is a two-time author of the books The Millennial Mind and The Millennial Experience, and an entrepreneur. Over the past four years, he has served as a Personal Development Coach whose work targets Millennials and helps them tap into their full potential. He is also a self-publishing coach and has guided hundreds on self-publishing their book successfully.

LinkedIn: Daniel Francis

IG: o.m.publishing

Website: www.ompublishing.org

Email: themillennialmind2020@gmail.com