I think we should all look upon our lives as a blank canvas to be painted as we would like it to look; my dad taught me that and I've certainly tried to do it. Of course, there's road blocks and unexpected occurrences and situations so things don't always go to plan. I guess what this post says is that I'm more focused on the masterpiece that is my life (or should be my life) and am actively working towards creating it. I just spent a couple hours crunching numbers, working things through, projecting out twenty years, which is all critical information that will permit decisions in the here and now.
Life is far too short not to wrangle it (or paint it) our own way.