Stop Making Excuses for Yourself

Let’s get things straight about who calls the shots in your life.

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

― George Bernard Shaw

When I was a teenager, I was not exactly the golden egg in the basket. I was very unsociable, my grades were average at best, and I was pretty lazy at home.

Until I was 19 years old, I hadn’t looked after myself, I hadn’t worked a single day, and I’d never even done laundry.

Some people thought I’d always be useless. But I was determined to change.

I had already started in high school by getting my grades up. Then I got into the best university in Canada and left home. I learned to cook and clean, I worked to support myself, and now that I’ve finished my degree I work hard to support my husband through college while pursuing a writing career.

So although I didn’t have a great start in life and didn’t receive much help or encouragement to change, I still did it on my own. I built myself.

The Universe Doesn’t Care About You

I don’t believe that the universe has some grand plan for each of us — that if we just wait long enough, we get to become who we’re meant to be and that eventually, things will fall into place.

That’s a comforting thought. But it’s just a pretty lie we tell ourselves.

You can choose to believe it if you’d like, but it won’t get you anywhere. You will be letting things happen to you instead of making things happen.

No matter what, you are in charge of your destiny. There may be things in life we can’t control, but who we are is not one of those things. So if you’re choosing to wait to become better, you’re choosing to be a loser.

If you want to be great, don’t wait to become great. Be great.

You Are More Than a Sum of Your Experiences

Experience plays a big part in who we are, but it’s not all.

Two separate individuals may go through the same experience. Yet, one may come out of it a better person and the other may come out worse.

At the end of every experience, good or bad, there is a crossroad with many paths that we can choose from. Where do you want to go from here? It’s entirely up to you. If you don’t think the choice is yours, then you’re delusional.

Saying that your experiences drove you to take the wrong path is just an excuse.

Luck Has Nothing to Do With It

My father is an extremely superstitious man. He believes that if he were going somewhere on a task and had to turn back for some reason, then he’d have bad luck and the task won’t go well.

He may not know this, but the reason he believes in such superstitions is so that he can blame his failures on luck.

In reality, there is no such thing as good luck or bad luck. Everything that happens that’s out of our control is random. The only thing that’s not random is our choices.

Stop wasting time thinking about luck and start thinking about making good choices.

Final Thoughts

Almost anything you can think of can be built, including character. You just need to put in the work.

The reason most people don’t change is that they are not willing to change — it’s always easier to swim with the current than against it. But if you want it bad enough, you can be better.

You can build yourself and your character. No excuses!