For the longest time I blamed stuff on everyone else. Whether it was doing poorly in a class, eating crappy, mismanaging money or not getting much work done on my on-going research project (also my part-time business), I always had an excuse (whether it be "but I had bad teammates", "I have too much work", "I just have bad luck" etc).
It took awhile but I finally realized that 99% of things in life you can control. Even when it comes to the things you cannot control, you can still take adequate measures beforehand to try and avoid them. It was one of the coolest realizations (and still, daily, I feel empowered by it) and scary at the same time. Scary because it means admitting my shortcomings and realizing that it was all of my own doing. Where I am today is a direct result of what I have "put in" to life. No one really wants to admit it because it can be so critical.
I'm in my low 20s so forgive my lack of insight before, but damn. It is one of the coolest things to have happened
I'm fortunate that I didn't end up realizing it when I'm older and didn't accomplish my goals (I don't want to have regrets). It all comes down to decisions, not luck. Unfortunately I was raised to think that everything was out of your control, that "things happen for a reason" and you should just let life take you where it does. I definitely don't believe that, or at least, they don't happen for a reason that is not your own.
Health (preventive and general health like eating good, low stress lifestyle with regular exercise and good body), money (being rich, even), good personal relations (considering the other party is not flaky), career (getting the job you want), education (getting into a good grad school), and general accomplishments in life are absolutely within reach--it just depends on whether you want them or not.
Is it hard to get all those? Not really.
Does it take work? Definitely!
The first while in my new approach was hard. I was always kind of fearful (I don't know why--maybe you get a fear of failure because you're so open to realizing you have the control and might screw up) for the first few months but then after forcibly doing it I finally realized that the work you put into tasks doesn't have to be boring--that you can find something interesting in many tasks, and that if you keep a vision of the future and know where you want to end up then you can achieve it.
It all hinged on a few things: determining what I want out of life (given that time is finite), making a plan on how to achieve it, following through with the plan (I have a 6 year detailed plan and a 15 year "where do I want to be" idea, so it's definitely an on-going process--you never finish).
There is no magic to success!
/sermon
It took awhile but I finally realized that 99% of things in life you can control. Even when it comes to the things you cannot control, you can still take adequate measures beforehand to try and avoid them. It was one of the coolest realizations (and still, daily, I feel empowered by it) and scary at the same time. Scary because it means admitting my shortcomings and realizing that it was all of my own doing. Where I am today is a direct result of what I have "put in" to life. No one really wants to admit it because it can be so critical.
I'm in my low 20s so forgive my lack of insight before, but damn. It is one of the coolest things to have happened
I'm fortunate that I didn't end up realizing it when I'm older and didn't accomplish my goals (I don't want to have regrets). It all comes down to decisions, not luck. Unfortunately I was raised to think that everything was out of your control, that "things happen for a reason" and you should just let life take you where it does. I definitely don't believe that, or at least, they don't happen for a reason that is not your own.Health (preventive and general health like eating good, low stress lifestyle with regular exercise and good body), money (being rich, even), good personal relations (considering the other party is not flaky), career (getting the job you want), education (getting into a good grad school), and general accomplishments in life are absolutely within reach--it just depends on whether you want them or not.
Is it hard to get all those? Not really.
Does it take work? Definitely!
The first while in my new approach was hard. I was always kind of fearful (I don't know why--maybe you get a fear of failure because you're so open to realizing you have the control and might screw up) for the first few months but then after forcibly doing it I finally realized that the work you put into tasks doesn't have to be boring--that you can find something interesting in many tasks, and that if you keep a vision of the future and know where you want to end up then you can achieve it.
It all hinged on a few things: determining what I want out of life (given that time is finite), making a plan on how to achieve it, following through with the plan (I have a 6 year detailed plan and a 15 year "where do I want to be" idea, so it's definitely an on-going process--you never finish).
There is no magic to success!
/sermon
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