Everywhere I go, I have a tendency to listen to people around me. Yeah, it’s evesdropping, but it’s also one of the best ways to find out what people are actually talking about. I hear plenty of celebrity gossip, and quickly dismiss it. Personally, I could care less about Amy Winehouse or Angelina Jolie unless she’s got a cool new movie coming out. But all to often, I hear excuses for all kinds of things.
Now, a lot of the time, what sounds like excuses is probably the God’s honest truth. So-and-so did screw them over and that’s why they didn’t get that promotion. On the personal stuff, I tend to ignore it. I don’t have enough facts to make an informed judgement.
But all to often, the excuses are different. I’ve heard people blame another ethnic group for their inability to succeed, and I’ve heard it from both black and white people. And that’s nothing. I’ve heard some of those same people talk about how they could get ahead if someone would just give them a chance.
Now, that little phrase seems innocent enough. I mean, how can one get ahead if someone doesn’t give them a chance? My question is, why should anyone give them anything?
Chances are given every day, don’t get me wrong. Sometimes, it’s not something that’s even deserved. Often times, that chance is squandered away as well.
Chances in life are precious things, but there’s no reason why someone should just give anyone a chance. These chances are usually jobs, jobs that are earned through a good job interview and capitalized on with hard work. They don’t just drop into our laps. Taking advantage of these chances is what will ultimately lead to better opportunities.
No one owes anyone a “chance” in life. They never have, and they never will. It’s a simple fact of life. What’s more, I’ve found that those who argue that they just need a “chance”, don’t really need that. They need to learn that they’ve had them.
If you’ve ever had a job, you’ve had chances. Someone gave you a chance. They didn’t have to, but they did. What did you do with it? For years, I personally squandered my chances. When my son was born, I quit. I couldn’t afford to squander any more chances because my family needed me to take advantage of those. So I did.
Now, success varies depending on the person and their ambition. For most though, success is pretty easy to grasp. A good job. A family. A home. The good old American Dream. But it won’t just happen, and it won’t just be handed to anyone.
Excuses are easy, but the actions necessary to take advantage of those chances we are all given is what truly matters. Do these people even recognize the chances they’ve been given? Not doing so is the true result of their hardships, not some outside force that’s keeping them down by not giving them chances.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There’s plenty of crappy things out there. Yes, it’s possible that a gifted worker is passed over for promotion due to their skin color. It happens far, far to often. But, ultimately, it’s a speed bump to those who refuse to be held down. They will get past it and succeed in spite of another’s ignorance.
But what about the others?
Well…they’d rather complain about not getting their chances than actually take advantage of what’s been given to them.
The biggest enslaving lie is that we don’t have the freedom to choose. If we have the freedom to make bad choices, then we have the freedom to make good choices.
It’s sad that the bad choices we’re free to make have enslaved us by enslaving our minds in negativity, helplessness, dependency, blaming. Sad in that that slavery (long gone) is the very thing we fall back on to blame all our problems on.
It’s good choices that align with freedom. It was good and persistent choices and forces, made with supreme sacrifices, that ended slavery. The same ethics will end enslaved minds today and further unite Americans.
How? Start today to stop the blame game. Spell B L A M E – Now say, “Blaming Lets Additional Misery Enter”. Don’t let additional misery enter our lives by blaming somebody. You are free to choose.
Making good choices is the only way to help our President fulfill the Nobel Peace Prize expectations. Uniting Americans must be done here first before he can take success worldwide.
Danny,
OUR President, as you called him, is a big part of the problem. The “enslaved minds” you talk about are enslaved because of a nation that has been led to believe that the government will take care of them, a notion that President Obama has done nothing to quash. This has spawned into the idea that people owe each other, such as with the healthcare debate among others.
While most people can recognize part of the problem, that to many folks are looking for excuses, it’s sad that some don’t recognize that government has had a hand in that.
Tom, agree that Obama became a puppet for the Democratic machine. But the puppeteer now has him tip toeing in baby steps to the middle. In doing this, the Dems will show false frustration. But they know now he must get near the middle to win again. Capturing again the hearts of the mixed majority that elected him. That believed him during the campaign when he said his destiny was not “First Black President’, but to unite America and clean out the white house.
His real destiny has been haunting him since he became President and a puppet. Sad to see him miss the greatness of a lifetime, that few get with so little effort and sacrifice. Say compared to the great effort and sacrifice of Martin Luther King Jr and all for civil rights. Obama had all the key elements needed for greatness handed to him on a platter, on a bigger scale and platform than MLK Jr, and squanders it.
He can’t say there has not been many reminders haunting him. Somebody needs to point out the haunts. To name one key haunt, getting the Nobel Peace Prize for expectations to improve world harmony. He must first achieve that here in the US, like he promised to work toward. We can help him by not blaming at our level and remind him of his real destiny, and to stop his blaming to end weakness at the top.
Danny,
There was no real promise that Obama would unite Americans. For years, I’ve understood that attempts to “unite” usually end up with the “uniter” believing the other side should go along with them.
As for his real destiny, I’m going to seriously take issue with you on that. First, a man’s destiny isn’t truly known except after the fact. To argue that he is being haunted by his “real destiny” is ridiculous. He, a one term Senator, was elected President of the United STates not through any achievement on his part, but because he was the least sucky candidate. I’m sorry, but that’s not a recipe for a great destiny to me.
As for his Nobel, that just proves the Nobel Peace Prize is a joke. Once, it may have meant something, but he got a prize for having done nothing…kind of like his Presidency.
And for the record? There aren’t any movements toward the center except out of necessity. Remember that he still has his hard left liberal ideology firmly entrenched. Having to take a few steps away from that ideology to make the leap later that much easier isn’t “baby steps toward the center”. Forcing any of this crap is hardly “centrist”.
It’s also important to remember that it’s not right, left or center. Political ideology doesn’t fit on a line, but in a grid. Few actually fall in the center, and NOTHING Obama has done fits in that box either.