“Adam listen to me, I have a life and it only goes in one direction, forward.” -Don Draper from the television series Mad Men.

If you aren’t familiar Don Draper is a success-filled yet complicated man with many traits that are not admirable. He comes off as a confident, and motivated man who seems like he always has an answer to everything, yet he battles personal demons that sometimes slow him down in his direction in life. There is one thing that we can learn from Don Draper though, he goes after what he wants without the thoughts of any repercussions. He does so by embodying the quote(for the most part) that is repeated a few times throughout the series.

Move forward.

Keeping those of you who haven’t seen the show in mind, Don Draper started with nothing yet ended up with his dream job. He did so by taking what he knew he was good at and kept walking without hesitation. When he stumbled at a pit fall he didn’t walk backwards. He stood his ground, reassessed and kept walking. By stopping and looking around he is able to see what the road ahead of him leads to. Without the constant direction he wouldn’t be far enough to see what that certain end point is.

This is what I personally gathered from this simple quote, choose a goal that is attainable, whatever it might be and stick to it. With enough determination, grit, and having the fortitude to learn to keep walking forward you’ll realize that the closer you get to your goal the better you can see what it would be like. If you don’t like that image or if you cannot see yourself doing that thing, at least you know two things;

1) The knowledge of knowing this isn’t for you, which if you hadn’t done so you’d spend your life wondering

2) You didn’t waste your time because that direction you are headed in is in the right and positive direction. It’s just a sign to make a tangential turn.

The problem is that many don’t embody the fact that life is finite. This is something that as children we have all embodied, finding out what we like means dipping your toes in as many waters as possible. Learning what pond to stick to is the hard part but yet necessary for adulthood. Because as Dr. Jordan Peterson would say, “There’s nothing uglier than an old infant, there's nothing good about it it people who don't grow up don't find the sort of meaning in their life that sustains them through difficult times and they are certain to encounter difficult times and they're left bitter and resentful and without purpose and adrift and hostile and resentful and vengeful and arrogant and deceitful and and of no use to themselves and of no use to anyone else and no partner for a woman and there's nothing in it that's good.”