I Am the Author and Editor of My Life

Let me tell you something you will never hear me say:  I am helpless!

Never, as in not once in this lifetime, as in not even embedded deep within my DNA.

The closest I came was in 2006, drunken stupor, not sure whether to give up or not, but that was a matter of simply not caring whether I continued or not; I always knew I could continue; I just wasn’t sure I wanted to fight the fight any longer.

Here is something I hate hearing . . . LIFE IS NOT FAIR!

Get over it. Life has never been fair, it is not fair now, and it never will be fair. Period, end of story, suck it up and let’s move on. Quit playing the entitlement game.  Quit thinking you are owed something by virtue of the fact you are breathing in and breathing out.

Life owes you nothing!

Once you fall into that trap, once you suggest that there is some cosmic roulette wheel in the sky, conspiring against your number for your entire life, then you have given up control of your future.  You are saying, to the universe, that there is no point in trying because the gods are against you, and that’s simply bull doo-doo.  I doubt seriously if the gods have even laid money down on you; I really don’t think you are anything more than reality television for them to watch, so you really need to shake loose from this victim comforter you luxuriate in so often.

I am the author of my life, as are you, as are you, as are all of us.  I wrote the script for the first seventy-five years, I acted out my part, I spoke the lines, hell, at times I sold tickets to the one-man show, and I will continue to do so for the rest of my life.

It’s called taking responsibility, and once someone does that, they declare to the world that they are in control, and nothing can derail them from chasing after goals and dreams.

Action hero or victim? Which sounds better to you?

You see it on social media daily. Facebook is a breeding ground for people who believe that life has treated them unkindly, and they post their latest travails, and speak about the injustice of it all, in hopes that a certain amount of sympathy will come their way from well-meaning friends who wish to appear supportive.

To the friends I say this: it’s called being an enabler.

Please, do not mistake this for a cold-hearted turn of the shoulder for those who have suffered a loss, or had a devastating event happen to them; they are deserving of compassion and empathy. I have delivered those things myself and will continue to do so.  No, I speak only about the people who think that when bad things happen to good people it is unfair.

Bull!

The only reward for being a good person, which has any lasting value, should be the knowledge that you are a good person.  You should need nothing else, you should expect nothing else, and you better not bet the farm there will be anything else.

You are the author of your life’s story.

Let me ask you this; we will play a pretend game of sorts.  If you were standing over your grave, you recently departed, would you look back over your life and be proud of it? Would you be happy with it? Would you feel fulfilled if you watched your made-for-tv movie?  Or would you think “damn it, I left too much undone.”  Thoreau spoke of the mass of men living lives of quiet desperation.  Is that you? Are you feeling incomplete? Do you enjoy that feeling?

The past is dead and buried.  You begin a new life today, right this moment.

Pick up a pen.  Determine what kind of future you want to have.  Consider that your mission statement going forward, and then wake up, each day, and take actions which lead you closer to achieving that mission statement.  It’s called intentional living, and only those who recognize the power they have, to alter their lives, will find value in it.