Ahh, social media. I see things that frustrate me and make me sad and I often want to say something, but I mostly just scroll on by.
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So here’s a post for me to get something off my chest.
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I see people who post about how much they hate their job, their financial situation, or some other aspect of their life, but are doing nothing to change their circumstances. Playing the victim, if you will.
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Now, I’m not an ignorant optimist. I know we can’t just click our fingers and change our lives. I know there are many things that can’t be changed. And that serious change often takes time, commitment, discipline, and patience.
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I also know that some people do get lucky, and it can be disheartening to think that the only way out of your own situation is for some big stroke of luck to hit, like winning the lottery.
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For the majority of us, that’s not how our circumstances are going to improve.
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It starts with realising that you DO have the power to make changes. Followed by a conscious decision to start shifting things, even if it begins with the tiniest of steps. It’s the understanding that every decision you make is either leading you towards your aspirations, or away from them.
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For example, choosing to have that fast food might be taking you further away from your goal of having a healthy body as well as a financial goal to save more money, rather than cooking the fresh food you already have in the fridge. Choosing to turn on the TV rather than practice a musical instrument is leading you away from mastery of that instrument.
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I’m certainly not advocating ‘all work and no play’. Down time is important too. But you need to understand what you are sacrificing each time you make a decision to do something less productive. Make your down time a choice, rather than just a fallback you’ve given no thought to.
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Don’t get me wrong. I’m not an expert at this and many of my own goals are still in the early stages. And I constantly have to remind myself to be mindful of my decisions and intentional in my actions. But the areas of my life that have seen improvements are the ones in which I have consciously taken steps to work on. And please, if you ever see me whinging about something and not taking steps to change it, pull me up. Remind me that ‘I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul’ (William Ernest Henley).
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– William Ernest Henley