A Hard Truth — Life Is Your Responsibility

Life is your responsibility. That means whatever you have or do not have is on you.

Many people complain about their situation, point fingers at the government for not keeping them happy, complain that their parents never taught them what to do, and put the blame on their partner if they feel stressed or unloved.

They talk about their boss behind their backs for not making enough money and blame the economy their lack of possibilities or luck for not making it to where they wanted to be.

But the truth is that if you do not have what you want then you did not do enough to get it.

With that already being said, many of you reading this will likely disagree.

“People don’t choose their sicknesses, for example, do not choose where they are born or what their situation was like as a child.

How can you then say that all of life is their responsibility?”

Do not misunderstand: I do not want to convince you that you are at fault for the things that happened to you, because there is no way I can be certain of it.

Maybe, before you were born, you chose this life for your next experience. Or maybe someone else placed your soul here in this way. Or maybe it was just bad luck.

No one can say with 100% certainty what’s actually true. Or at least, it doesn’t matter what’s true.

Whether or not you can control all of life and are responsible for where you are or not and what you have or do not have does not matter.

What matters is that if you keep pointing your finger, if you keep blaming others, you will keep limiting your options and keep staying behind. And you will never get what you really want out of life.

The truth is that you are here right now. Whether you like it or not and whether you chose this or not. This is your life.

Point your finger where you will, blame whoever you want, that fact will not change.

And, as long as we are being direct, you could have chosen a billion different paths that would have led to a billion different outcomes.

The fact that you chose what you chose got you here.

You could have said no to the job, could have saved your money for a ticket out of your country even if it meant leaving everything behind, or could have taken another route to work the day of your accident.

But you didn’t. You chose what you did. Making where you are your responsibility.

If you paid attention to this point, and are still at least a little open minded about what I’ve said thus far, you’ll notice that the key lesson here is that you are in control over your actions and your actions control your path.

And while this does make you responsible up until now for everything bad that has happened and everything you do not have, it also makes you responsible for every good moment you’ve experienced and everything you’ve obtained thus far!

And, furthermore, what it also does is give you the power to control where you are going from here!

When you take responsibility for where you are and stop pointing fingers you start doing more because you can rely on less outside of you.

You cannot rely on the government to fix all your problems, cannot rely on your partner to make you happy, or your parents to give you everything you need.

They have their own stuff to deal with and you are not the main character in their movie.

Stop waiting for others to save you, stop wishing things would be different, and start accepting the responsibility for what has lead you here.

And then, if you wish to go somewhere else, if you wish not to be here anymore, then take responsibility and act.

Forgive yourself for the choices you made, you always tried your best and chose what was best given the knowledge you had. No one can blame you for that.

But please stop pointing the fingers and start looking at yourself!

What did you not do? What could you have done differently? What could you do to make a difference?

I know it’s easier to point and to blame others, but it will not get you the life you deserve.

Don’t pin your hopes and dreams on someone else’s good will. If you want it then go and get it yourself!

Originally published on Quora.com