Free Stuff
Shaping Your Circumstances
by Dr. Mary Ann Diorio
(This article is excerpted from Dr. Diorio’s book, Selling Yourself On You. To purchase the book, visit the Store on this site.)
One of the greatest gifts God gave you is the freedom to choose. How you use this freedom will determine your failure or success in life.
No matter what your past has been—whether you’re from Yale or jail—YOU can choose to make your future. YOU decide whether you will be a grasshopper or a giant in life.
Becoming a giant means being willing to change. It means being willing to give up negative habits and to replace them with positive ones. But the long-term rewards far outweight the sacrifices. Indeed, as Zig Ziglar, well-known motivational speaker, often says, “You don’t pay a price for success; you enjoy its benefits.”
Begin today to enjoy the benefits of success by getting rid of negative habits that have caused you to fail. Decide to take charge of your life. Decide to sell yourself on you!
Selling yourself on you begins with accepting full responsibility for your actions. It’s so easy to blame your parents, your environment, or your childhood circumstances for failure in your life. The truth is that YOU ALONE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR ACTIONS.
For many people, this is a truth too painful to admit. It’s much easier to find a scapegoat for failure. Acknowledging your total responsibility for your actions, however, frees you and puts you well on the road to loving yourself.
Mark was a young man of great potential and creativity. From all outward appearances, he had everything going for him. Yet Mark was miserable and failing to become all that God meant him to be.
Because of some tragic situations that had occurred during his childhood, Mark had allowed bitterness and resentment toward his parents to rob him of success. In his conversation, he repeatedly blamed his parents for his failure. He refused to face the fact that whether our past makes or breaks us is totally up to us.
It’s not your past that matters; it’s how you react to your past. Likewise, it’s not your present situation that matters’ it’s how you respond to that situation.
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Copyright 2006 by MaryAnn L. Diorio, Ph.D. All rights reserved.
This article may not be reproduced in any way without the written permission of Dr. Mary Ann Diorio. Violators will be prosecuted. Copies, however, may be made for personal use, but please include all information at the end of the article as well.
