This article is about helping yourself. It's about when you have an issue with something, or if you have a personality flaw, that it is your responsibility to help yourself if you ever desire to change. You see, I believe no matter how much you try and give someone advice, no matter how much you talk to someone, if that person doesn't have the desire to change, then all that talking is in vain.
This doesn't relate just to change though, this relates to pretty much everything. Some people just don't want to be helped no matter how hard you try to help them. That in itself is a very sad statement to be honest. If I have a problem, and there are people in my life that want to help, why wouldn't I take notice of them and actually listen to their advice. You see, you cannot give someone advice on something in you haven't walked through that fire yourself, successfully.
For example, let's say I used to be a smoker. I overcame the addiction and now I'm "smoke-free" so to speak. Now I have a friend who is a smoker and wants to quit. Now because I've quit smoking successfully by whatever method I used, I can sit with said friend and advise them on how to quit. Why? Because I've walked through that fire and came out the other end a victor. But now here's the thing...
If said friend doesn't want to help themselves regarding the quitting, then you can talk and talk until the cows come home, it'll all be in vain. The person who needs help or wnats help must want to also help themselves. There are many people out there who want to get rid of a bad habbit, or a bad personality trait, but they're not willing to put in the effort to get rid of it. They're not willing to go through the pain and suffering ( if need be ) to be victorious.
There are many people out there that think the world will meet them half way. They are delusional. The world meets no one half way. Oh make no mistake, I was like this at one point. Entitled. Expecting everyone to do things for me, to help me out of situations that I got myself into. But you know what, I didn't want to do anything from my side. I just expected everyone to always be there and help and I do nothing.
Reader, that is not how it works, and I found out the hard way.
I believe this article is more aimed towards children, the youth of today, in my opinion. Let's say you have kids, and the child expects everything to be done for him / her. The child never wants to learn and grow in experience. The parents, or parents, encourage this because let's be honest, we all want to give our kids our best. But in essence this is hurting the child in the long run. The child is being taught, by the parents, that it's okay to just expect everything to be done for them. It's ok to get into trouble and mommy or daddy will always be there to bail them out.
But I believe the best way is to teach the child to help themselves, and not to always depend on others for help. Sure it's okay to ask for help, that's a good thing because it shows humility, but when asking for help becomes a right, that's when it's wrong I believe. Ok, let's take an example.
John is 18 years old and it's time to find a job. He is so used to his parents doing everything for him that he doesn't know how to help himself, even though he has everything at his disposal to do so. He tells the parents that they must find hima job. He tells them that he is only 18 years old and they must help him find a job. John has the internet at his disposal, a sound mind that was given to him by God, he has transport etc. Yet he finds it easier to put this responsibility on his parents.
Why? Because he was trained so from a very young age. John doesn't know how to help himself. He is now crippled by the inability to help himself. Now John has to re-train his mind so that he can help himself and not run to his parents everytime something needs to get done. I believe it's a common mistake many parents make, and we cannot blame them, it's their child. They only want to show love and affection to their children, and do as much for them as they can.
Back in the day I was like this, as mentioned before, and it did a lot of damage. I actually lost someone due to this. ( Not death but that person isn't in my life anymore ). It's so easy to just expect things and think the world will do everything for you. However the painful truth is that when you are out there, and the world starts to teach you, that the world has no mercy. It'll teach you without sugar coating anything. It'll hit you hard again and again, and it's your decision to either stay down or get back up and fight back.
To do things for yourself. Become independant. Start to think outside the box when a problem arises. Listen to people who have wisdom in whatever area they're trying to help you in. Otherwise, trust me, you are going to learn the very hard way, and it's going to sting like a mother trucker!