The Solution: Take Action To Become the Master of Your Life

The life lesson I learned when my friend started running.

Living with mental illness means there are lots of days that knock you off your feet. If you choose to stay down, you will never improve. There is no guarantee that getting up will make you happier, but staying down guarantees you won’t.

When you put forth the effort to improve things, whether your physical or mental health, you open the door to new opportunities. Each new opportunity has the potential for greatness.

Take my friend Emily (not her real name.) For years, she agonized over the fact she couldn’t find a good husband. The more upset she got, the more isolated she became. Rarely did she go out with friends, and all the time home alone lead to comfort-food binge eating and serious weight gain.

One day, Emily looked in the mirror and didn’t like her reflection. The realities of what she was doing finally clicked, and she decided to take action.

“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.” — Benjamin Disraeli

Emily’s chief concern was to improve for herself. She wasn’t thinking about a potential husband or looking for admiration from her coworkers. She changed for herself because she was disappointed in who she had become.

She started with walking and soon turned to running.

Within six months, Emily took part in her first marathon. She didn’t win. In fact, she walked most of the route. She knew there was no chance she could win, but she wanted to prove to herself she could cross that finish line. When she did, she let herself celebrate her immense victory with some of the other participants.

Along the route, she met other runners that were also competing in their first marathon. Those brief introductions became strong friendships with people that had similar goals.

Emily competes in several marathons a year now. She has never won a race, but she’s now able to run most of the race with the body she’s happy to see in the mirror.

“It’s not about the race,” she told me recently. “It’s about the friends who run alongside me. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.”

Emily has those friends because she chose to take action.

Spend some time today thinking about an action you can take. You don’t have to run marathons, but maybe you could choose a small habit to change. For example, decide to watch less TV, eat fewer doughnuts, or spend five minutes a day walking. The point is to take some action to improve yourself from where you are right now.

The more you take action, the more opportunities will open up to you. It’s impossible to know how your life will improve until you try to change.

Until next time, keep fighting.

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