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Ever since I was a little child, astronomy has always amazed me. I loved gazing at the night sky for hours during the summer when I used to visit my grandmother’s house for vacation. I thought magnificent creatures of the cosmos magically lit up the pitch-black darkness of the night.

As I grew up, I learned in school that those magical stars were millions of light-years away. That means the light I used to see at night at my grandmother’s house was emitted from those stars millions of years ago (even before the dinosaurs were on the Earth). In many cases, there was a possibility the star I could see shining bright and strong had died off . Only if I lived for a million years could I know the fate of that star.

This realization made me think! I couldn’t believe that every single time I gazed at the night sky I was actually looking into the past. Those lights were things that had already happened in the past, and yet strangely enough, thousands and millions of years later I could see them as if that was the reality. But it wasn’t! It was the reality of yesterday, of the past.

What struck me was the very same phenomenon occurs every day in our lives. Yet each one of us seldom realizes this. We all, as I write this, are constantly time traveling just like the stars in our everyday lives, and no, it’s not science fiction.

Like the stars’ effect is felt long after it sends the light, the things you did in the past affect your life, your home, your character, your job, everything! Both good and bad. It’s a sum total of your actions and decisions. The life you’re living is actually just like the light from the stars you see at night, a continuum from the start to now.

This is a very powerful notion. As you go about your day to day activities, you’re building your future. You’re literally crafting your future. The people you’re friends with, the books you read, the things you do after work, all of these and many more tiny and huge decisions you make and actions you take each day shape your future.

At first glance you might want to discard this just as a nice talk, but it’s a fact! You might even ask “What about luck?”

Well, the thing with luck is it does exist, but it’s not what most people think it is. Luck isn’t a lady you can please; luck is just plain random. Sometimes good things happen; other times bad things happen. However, if you keep doing your part sincerely (consciously crafting your destiny), even if lady luck doesn’t favor you, it won’t matter. You can still make a fulfilling life with flying colors!

Imagine this:

Student (A): Works very hard. Reads the entire book for the examination in and out. Works hard all year around.

Student (B): Average student. Works a little across the year, crams during the exam and focuses of the important topics only.

Now let’s say for some reason, the examinations that year change and include a majority of questions from the less important sections (which are usually untested). How do you think A will do opposed to B ?

As you can correctly figure out, student A studied hard, read all the chapters and easily passed with flying colors in spite of the fact that good luck didn’t necessarily favor him. While on the other hand, student B might consider himself unlucky because the sections of the book he read were not the highlights. But you have to ask whether student B is really unlucky or victim of his actions? You see, the decisions both these students made crafted their futures.

Quick Tips For Practical Time Travel (How to craft your future):

(1) Remember, each day is a miniature view of your entire life. What you do every single day counts, and it adds up. This is the most important principle.

(2) Have a definite goal. Define goals and stick to them, making sure they’re not arbitrary. Once you have them set, you can work each day to reach them.

(3) Break up the big task into smaller components and achieve this way.

(4) Keep a log of daily achievements. Writing in a diary at the end of the day is very fruitful. It helps you keep track of daily accomplishments, plus it makes you think about them. If you have a dry day and you couldn’t get anything done, when you sit down to write in that journal, you’ll realize you have nothing to show or be proud of today, This can push you to do something better tomorrow.

(5) Working hard is the antidote for bad luck – any question ?

(6) You are crafting your very life each day with your actions and decisions. What you do today determines the place you’ll live, the clothes you’ll wear, the people and things you enjoy.

(7) Hang out with great people. Having good friends is very important.

(8) Read great books. The second best thing to befriending great people (from Gandhi to Steve Jobs) is to get in their minds by reading their books to understand what they feel and think. Make sure you find time to read something (newspapers, lifestyle magazines and restaurant menus don’t count) every day. Make sure you’re feeding your mind with great input and stimulating your soul, so you can do good things in life and succeed as a human being.

(9) Go to TED.com daily. It’s a bountiful source of inspiration and motivation on a daily basis. TED.com is a nonprofit that basically organizes amazing conferences where great people from all walks of life come and share their views. All the videos are available online to watch for free. If you haven’t checked out TED.com yet, you’re definitely missing something.

The second best option is Youtube, which is also another excellent archive of amazing videos. But it’s not specific and too broad. Also, it’s very easy on Youtube to slip off and start watching Lady Gaga or some funny video. So you have to use self-restraint.

(10) Start + Do. All advice is only good when it’s implied. The starting point is one of the biggest stumbling blocks most people face. It’s the bumpy spot that has the most amount of resistance. Once you get past it, though, you’ll start flowing and shining with the momentum you generate. So, perhaps the most important thing in the end is implementing these changes in your life.

Now it’s up to you. Follow these steps and craft a better future by aiming at the stars.