How often do you blame things that you claim are out of your control? Do you ever blame the weather, economy, other political party, world leaders, or even god for your own misfortune? If you do, you are just lying to yourself. The truth is that you are the only one who chooses the direction of your life. No matter how dire the circumstance, there is always something you can do to change it.
Successful people don't succeed in life because they blame others. If they do, they will soon lose their success or were never truly successful. Let me make a clarification here: money doesn't equal success. While money may come with it, success is fulfilling your obligation to reach your full potential. Own up to and learn from your failures, don't place them on others.
Say that one day a massive hurricane destroys the roof of your home and displaces your family. This may seem completely out of your control and you may want to scream and blame the universe, but the truth is you could have done something about it. Why weren't you prepared for the hurricane, surely it was on the news at some point? If you live in an area prone to hurricanes, why weren't you prepared for it? Why wasn't your house ready for the hurricane, did you opt for cheaper building material? The list goes on and on, its easy to make excuses to these questions, but it is much harder to swallow the truth of responsibility. This is a key difference between successful and the rest, the successful don't make excuses.
At this point, you may be thinking that being successful means being superhuman or all powerful. It's not. Both successful people and the rest make lots of mistakes, but successful people will never make the same mistake twice. This is because they learn as much as they can from their previous mistakes, and take precautions to avoid even making them again.
No matter your beliefs, race, religion, ethnicity, or ancestry, you must accept that luck doesn't exist. Its a concept designed for the masses that makes the harsh reality of life easier to handle. "Oh its not your fault you didn't get the job, you're just unlucky." Lies. Whether you achieve success is determined by how high you set your goals, and how hard you work to reach them. Samuel Goldwyn once said "The harder I work, the luckier I become."
Now here's the upside of this way of thinking: when you attribute all of your failures and misfortune a direct result of your actions, you must also attribute all of your success as a direct result of your actions. Now this argument may appear to have many flaws.
You may say "Well qtip2001, if I win the lottery, does that mean it was because of my actions?" I have two things to say to that:
- Successful people don't need to play the lottery
- You are the one who chose to buy that ticket, not anyone else. It may be a game of probability, but it was ultimately your choice.
It may also seem to you that I am ignoring religion and spirituality. To that I say:
- If you were put on this Earth for a reason, what is it? Was it to waste your time away and blame others? Or was it to lead by example and inspire others to be successful, therefore improving the quality of life for humanity as a whole?
- Your choices still affect your life. If you choose to follow a belief, and positive things come from that belief, was it not because of you that those positive thing occurred?
Another ending from Invictus, but slightly different this time:
We are the masters of our fates,
We are the captains of our souls.