Get out there and do something!

Bad stuff can either be the excuse to why we do less or the reason we do more.

When we compare we always come up short.

"Why do I have such high student loans? It's free to go to college in Sweden." You did not go to college in Sweden. "I should just default on my loans!" No, you could say,  "I have a high student loan, so I will work in state and this employer will pay part of my student loan. I can do this for five years then I can go to the job I really want and make more money because I will have more experience too."

The bottom line is, we have choices. Kids raised by absentee parents or alcoholic parents can choose not to drink, or use their parents as a reason to drink. We can use the bad stuff that happens to us as an excuse to do less, or the reason to do more! I choose the latter. We can say that when we grow up in a tough environment it makes us tougher or takes us out. We would be correct in both statements. The question is what do you want from a bad experience; bad life or a good reason?

​We make our choices and then our choices make us.

Martin Luther King was able to do what he did because he was optimistic. Not optimistic in the sense that he thought if he just stayed home and played pool all day that things would work themselves out, but optimistic in the sense that he thought we could correct injustice if we pushed hard enough -- that people would come around. Just as Steve Jobs was confident that computing could change the world if enough geniuses put in enough 100-hour weeks. Optimism is believing that going out in the world and doing things is worthwhile. It's the cynics who stay home and do nothing. This is why the most cynical hipsters among us are also the most unemployed.

ACTION STEP: Get out there and do something. Don't use your past or someone else's failure as a reason for you to fail.