It’s so easy to get shaken up by the bad stuff life throws at you. It’s so easy to act on impulse when something goes wrong, but it’s even way easier to sit back and complain about the things that go wrong in your life and play the victim. How do I know this? Because I have played victim so many times. It started right from the time I threw a punch to my brother’s stomach because he didn’t give me what I wanted when I felt like I deserved it.
For a very long time in my life, I played victim, but growing older, I have realized that I can take responsibility for my life and the things that happen to me. It means I can do something about the things that make me uncomfortable. And you could do that too. No, I’m not saying hit the person who stepped on your white Nike’s. I’m not saying burn the house of the friend who betrayed you. No. Please, don’t do that. I’m saying think before you act, I’m saying focus on the things you can actually control, rather than worry about the things you can’t control, and I’m definitely saying take initiative to make things happen.
Okay, short and simple story. It was the start of a new semester last year. And that meant new courses, new classes, and new textbooks. I had been allocated already by the school system to my classes, but the good thing is, when that happens, you can adjust the timetable and make it more convenient for yourself. For example, if you’ve been allocated to an early morning class, but you’re a snoozer like me, you could allocate yourself to an afternoon or evening class instead. It was pretty cool, honestly. However, when I needed to make a last adjustment, I realized the class I wanted to move to was already full — in most cases, not actually always full — and I would have to be in a class I didn’t exactly like. I also found out I would have to buy a textbook which in my opinion was too expensive at the bookstore. I wanted a textbook. It makes learning and studying easy for me, but it was just too expensive.
Now, I could have gone all day sulking about how the school system hates me, and how I was going to deal with suckish timetables and “waste” good money on a textbook when I could head to the supermarket with that money and spoil myself with all the snacks on the rack. But I realized I could control that particular situation. I could take responsibility and do something about it, so I was in my room that evening and thought of ways to make things easier for myself. It took a while, but it hit me. I could go to the timetable guy, Greg, and ask him to personally help me move my class to the one convenient for me instead of relying on the system. For the textbook, I could find an old student who would sell their textbook at a cheaper price for me — and that was exactly what I did.
Cue the music and me walking in slow motion with shades on.
That was just a simple illustration, but the fact remains that we can control some things. There are some things we experience that we are not happy with, we can take control of those situations. We can take initiative to make those situations better. We can take control of our reactions to those things. We can’t control who is going to win that football match, we can’t control how people treat us, but we can control how we react to these things.
Instead of sitting around and complaining about things that bother you, step out. Do something about it. Take charge to achieve what you want to accomplish. I think Mark Twain was really brilliant. He said, “Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”
