The Importance of a Stable Base
Collapsing Buildings and Unstable Foundations
Buildings need a stable base to stand tall and serve their purpose, so imagine what will happen to a building if built on an unstable base…
It will collapse.
Obviously, right?
Well, I know that, yet, I still built my life on an unstable foundation and watched it collapse right before my eyes. Let me tell you, seeing the building collapse was not a good feeling, at all. It was painful, it led to messy consequences, took a lot of time to clean up, and then even more to rebuild.
We’re always told to plan our lives, at least our near future. We need to always have a plan, and that is true. But you see, there are things you can base your life on and others you just can’t, or else it will end up collapsing like mine did.
You can not build your life on something you can’t control, because just like the name suggests, you can’t control this factor, so if it changes everything based on it will no longer fit. The life you built on this base will crumble like a Jenga tower or a building during a strong earthquake.
To plan your life without building it on an unstable base you need to draw its blueprint on all unstable foundations. Then you choose the blueprint that can be built on all of them, the one that can be slightly manipulated to fit any foundation when their stability is somewhat confirmed later, in the near future.
Consequences of Building on an Unstable Base
Let me explain. You plan to go to a certain university, one that fits all your criteria, so you apply. Then you take only the courses that this university needs, you also find an apartment near it, and you tailor all your life to fit the one you planned for yourself when you get into the university. But what if you don’t get accepted? If you don’t have a plan B, you may end up crumbling alongside your plan. Since its base, going to this university isn’t applicable anymore, yet you’ve dedicated all your effort and time to it.
Same thing for someone who is doing everything in their life to get a certain job. They dedicate their school and university years just to get this one role after graduation. But what if you graduate and the role is no longer needed, replaced by AI, or your situation no longer allows you to work in this place or take up the role?
If this happens, you may feel helpless, depressed, and regretful for all the years spent working towards this goal. This is why building your life on only one unstable base is risky.
This could be applied in many ways in life, basing life on; getting married, reaching a financial status, or relying on a single friendship or relationship for all emotional support. What if your marriage doesn’t work out, you face unexpected financial challenges, or your friend moves away or grows distant?
Strategies for Building on a Stable Base
To avoid the collapse of our lives due to building them on the wrong or just one base, we should be flexible. We should diversify the foundations we draw the blueprints.
The high school student in the first example should’ve applied to other universities as well, they should’ve taken courses that would’ve helped them in other universities too.
They should’ve had their options opened and their different plans ready. So after checking the options and finding the attainable and suitable ones, they can continue building on them. If they got into the university they initially wanted then good for them and congratulations, they can stick to plan A.
But if they haven’t, then they would have something else ready to replace the original plan. They won’t be stuck in a phase where they are lost and don’t have a plan.
For the second example, the student should’ve acknowledged the fact that the job might not be suitable later. Then they would’ve focused on acquiring skills and lessons from their courses that can be applied anywhere; whether it’s the job they aspired to acquire or another one.
We can’t control any future outcomes, external circumstances, or even other people’s choices, so we need to make sure we don’t limit any plan or have any expectations based on these things.
On the other hand, sometimes we can improve the chances of our original plan working if we increase the things we can control. Like our effort, hard work, actions, and research.
Another important thing to keep in mind of is how much we fixate over the original plan and only the original plan. Our blind assumption that any base is stable and our concentrated efforts and thoughts going to the building only when built on this certain foundation are what makes the collapse harder and harsher if it comes to that.
How more we fixate or obsess over our goals that depend on things we can’t control, the more we’ll be disappointed and affected if things don’t work out due to uncontrollable factors.
Always have your options open, and your efforts diversified (but not too much that they’re no longer effective). Have many blueprints for all the different foundations so you don’t end up with a shaky building built on an unstable base, or a collapsed building built on an unstable base.
Don’t forget, that things you can’t control are the ultimate definition of unstable foundations.
Thank you for reading!
