Which Way Do I Go?

I have a great privilege this semester to have Dr. Lee Manzer as my marketing professor. I referred to him at the beginning of the semester as "Dr. Gpa" because he is the oldest tenured professor at Oklahoma State University. He is a unique professor. He isn't interested in monotone, dry lectures that put people to sleep. He doesn't use a PowerPoint slide show presentation with his notes. He doesn't sit in a chair to talk to us. Every day he tries his best to spice things up to make coming to class interesting. This is rare for an older professor at any university. Even with all these great attributes, he is most well known by his stories and quotes. Every class period he will tell interesting long stories that apply to what we cover in the book. He also takes any chance he can get to teach us "life lessons". Many of his stories include: "How easy it is to be great", "How to get people to commit to goals", So on and so on. It is interesting to me how many people I have spoken to, who have had Dr. Manzer as a professor in the past that remember the stories he tells. My older brother and sister-in-law also had him as a professor and they both remember stories that stuck with them through the entirety of their lives. Even the lady who interviewed me for a scholarship a couple of weeks ago told me a few stories she remembered. It's amazing how such a simple teaching philosophy has impacted the memory of so many college students. I was lucky enough to catch the last couple years of his teaching career. I would like to share one of his small "stories" with you: "The importance of goals".

If we don't have goals, than we can't expect to have any accomplishments in our lives. Aside from his story I found this fact very interesting, "The Yale graduating class of 1953 was surveyed to see how many had written goals. Only 3% had written goals. 30 years later, the same class was surveyed again. The same 3% had accumulated over 90% of the wealth of the entire graduating class". Dr. Manzer's story was based around Alice and Wonderland (yes this post is inspired by the premier of the movie tonight). I found a video clip that will save you plenty of reading time.





Do you notice that Alice gets to a fork in the road and does not know which way to turn? She does not know where she is going. She is lost in her circumstances and is just stumbling along mindlessly. She gets to the fork and asks the Cheshire cat a very important question, "Which way do I go?" The cat responds, "Which way do you want to go?"

"I do not know",

"Than it really does not matter which way you go".

If we have no aim in our lives, than it really does not matter which way we go... If we wonder around in our lives, simply clocking in and clocking out type of lifestyle, than we can't expect great accomplishments. "Shoot for the moon and you might end up in the stars". Even if I only hit the stars, that would be better than indecisively standing at the fork in my life on earth. I have taken the initiative to write out my long term and short term goals in my journal. Considering my task oriented lifestyle, this helps me see the current plan for my life. Another day and another story might be who your Cheshire cat might be. Who are you asking for direction or help?

Things to think about ladies and gentlemen. Don't be Alice and simply stumble around a hallucinogenic euphoria with no direction. Get a goal and start pursuing the finish line.