Don't Wish Life Were Easier – Wish You Were Better

There are two ways that we can look at problem solving. There is the way that we would like to use to solve the problem and there is the way that we must use if we ever hope of solving it. That is particularly true when we find that the world is not turning the way that we would like.

We’ve all had times when our efforts don’t give us the expected results, days when we don’t seem to be getting anywhere and days when we feel like giving up. The natural thing to do when that happens is to wish that life were easier. The problem with that is that it’s probably not going to happen. Wishful thinking never got anyone anywhere.

We cannot change the world but it is in our power to improve who we are. Granted, not an easy task but a possible one and, in the cases where our efforts are not yielding the results wanted, it becomes the only solution.

Whether we like it or not, we must take personal responsibility for the place that we are presently occupying in life. We are the ones who got us where we are and blaming our parents, the economy or the world will not help. It is only by taking personal responsibility for our situation that we can ever hope to do something about it.

Taking personal responsibility for our situation does not imply guilt in any way shape or form. It simply means that we are the one who took the decisions, implemented those decisions and eventually got the logical outcome of our decisions and actions.

Blaming someone or something else for our condition is futile, immature and childish. As responsible adults we must own up and take full responsibility for our life if we ever hope to achieve a better quality of life.

If we want to obtain better results we need to improve and self-improvement begins by understanding that, as individuals, we are work in progress. Though is may be hard to fully accept, we have a vast reservoir of untapped potential. We are but a fraction of what we could ultimately become.

The problem with self-growth is that it can easily be seen in retrospect but it I very hard to imagine in advance. It’s easy to realize that we have made progress in the past but it is hard to imagine that we can stay on that upward swing in the future.

Self-growth is like tending a garden. Whatever is done in the present can only be observed and enjoyed in the future. The changes that we make today in our work ethic, the new standards that we impose on ourselves and the new expertise that we’ve acquired will only become evident in the future.

We change and we grow through persistent efforts that have to be done on faith alone. Growth occurs without immediate manifestation. That may be a disheartening fact but it should not be a discouraging one. Efforts always yield results even if they are not always immediately apparent.

Alexis Carrel said, "It's not easy for man to change because he is at the same time the block of granite and the artisan who must, through powerful strokes of the hammer, chisel out of his own substance the masterpiece that he wants to become."

It may not be easy to change but it is possible. Not only is it possible but it’s also the only way that we can make life easier, the only way that greater and better results can be achieved and that we can eventually become all that we can be.