Hey! Just Came To Say…No One Is Coming.

I had a huge reality check this week. It hit me when I was reading a book for pleasure. I didn’t expect it to have such an impact because it was a statement that I’ve seen before in another permutation or varied wording. At its root, what I read focused on self-responsibility and initiative. It poses inaction in the negative by using lost opportunity cost to prompt action. It places you as the lone warrior without any backup or support as if you were the only person in the world.

To an English professor or literary enthusiast, what I read is lackluster in style. But for a person like you who’s looking to affect change in your life, its gold.

“No one is coming. If I don’t do something, nothing is going to get better.”

-Nathaniel Branden, author of The Six Pillars of Self Esteem

Like I said, it’s not the most beautifully phrased quote. It’s blunt and brutal. It’s not espousing any new ideas we haven’t heard a million times from gung-ho motivators. But for some reason, just this once, reading the quote created huge emotional leverage for me taking action.

For me, the quote was like a stray thread. Once pulled, an entire string of beliefs were pulled apart. Beliefs about religion, money, love, happiness were put into question. As such, I had to adopt new beliefs to replace my old ones that will better support the achievement of my vision.

Below you can find an image of the page that I wrote on after realizing “no one is coming.” These phrases are great vehicles for your mind to work under as they create emotional leverage to remember your self-responsibility. Read through them. If you agree with them, take the belief on board. If you don’t, that’s fine too. It’s encouraged to agree or disagree with me because that means you are thinking for yourself.

 Furthermore, I do want to add a couple more sentence completions.

 No one is coming to —

 -make sure you are dressed well

 -make sure you are thinking for yourself

 -make sure you act with moral integrity

 -make sure you are developing intellectually

 -make sure you live a life of purpose

 -make sure the desires and wants you have are your own

There’s no denying it. You have the reigns of your life in your hands. While I do understand that you could argue that, yes, there may be rules and authorities that “make sure” you do one thing or another, the main point is that you want to be making decisions rather than being coerced into action.

Stop diffusing your responsibility. Stop waiting for someone to change your life for you. Stop praying for a miracle.

Make your life your responsibility and actively pursue that which you want. It’s your responsibility. It’s not going to get better unless you decide it will.