Responsibility

This may sting a bit...

I was reading THE $100 STARTUP by Chris Guillebeau on a recent flight. He focused my mind on obstacles we face in our pursuit of 'success,' and wrote about how most of them aren't real obstacles at all.

We allow them to become excuses.

"We are each responsible for our own life; no other person is or even can be." *

The examples Chris used made that quote unavoidable...

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in a small prison cell on Robben Island.

Twenty-seven years!

If he's bitter, we never see it. If he's angry, he keeps it controlled.

What he showed us is forgiveness and reconciliation. He directed his attention, and ours, forwards, not backwards.

Viktor Frankl, a neurologist and psychologist, lost his wife and every member of his family except for one sister, to the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Dachau.

He emerged to write MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING, using his own real experiences in the camps as evidence that a purpose-driven life is always possible, even under the harshest circumstances.

If you believe that something beyond your control is keeping you from making a difference in our world -- from 'success' -- you need to confront yourself, not any industry.

If you have more time than money right now, use it to volunteer. Food banks, homeless shelters, the elderly, unwanted animals, your church, your neighborhood. Push yourself to give of yourself: one day a week.

It will help you focus on others who would gratefully accept your deal in life.

It will help you open yourself to a new purpose.

It just may allow you to knock down that obstacle that has seemed to block your way, and put you on a new path and a new understanding of 'success.'

* Oprah Winfrey