“Doctors don’t make you healthy. Teachers don’t make you learn. Trainers don’t make you fit. Coaches don’t make you rich. At some point you have to understand that this life is 100% your responsibility.”—Unknown
Self-discipline and responsibility have been on my mind. So, naturally, the above meme/quote caught my attention. This life is indeed 100% our responsibility. Stuff happens, of course, but how we respond—how we use the “stuff” that happens to us is 100% our choice.
We seem to be moving, as a society, away from this understanding. It presents a bit of a chicken-and-egg argument, but the reality is it is a problem and the solution to the problem muddied by the problem itself. When we don’t understand (or refuse to understand) that our life is 100% our responsibility, we expect others to change, and, of course, the problem grows.
I can’t change others. I can’t, for example, change how people use the passing lane on the highway or stop as they enter a round-about (two of my daily frustrations). I can, however, change how I respond to the situation. If I let it affect my attitude (or what I prefer to call “grattitude”), that is entirely on me. It is my problem, not theirs.
Own it. Own your health, your education, your physical fitness, your economic status, etc. Own your success, as well as your failure. Own your grattitude.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, NIV).
The above verse is often used to suggest that God is controlling our lives. I don’t believe this to be quite the case. I believe the intent is to direct us toward an understanding our Purpose—that all things work for the good when we understand that there is a Purpose greater than self. Sure the stuff and our lives can be extremely painful. I have friends who must daily revisit the loss of a child. I can’t imagine much worse than that. They have come to own the pain and are doing great things with it. They own the life they have been dealt. They don’t dwell on their own pain. Instead, they have made it their Purpose to spare others of the same pain.
I want to have that kind of ownership over my life. Sometimes, though, I can’t even own my own response to traffic. Grattitude takes constant diligence. The sooner we can understand the reality that this life is 100% our responsibility, the sooner we can be happy and content in our circumstances. (Contentment in our circumstances, by the way, is not resigning to the circumstances we are in. Instead, it is the understanding that we have the power to change our life—the power to work all things for the good.)
Be your best today; be better tomorrow.
Carpe momento!