You Are the Problem

Never forget that no matter who tries to protect your feelings, You are the problem, and it is your fault. Not ours.

You are the problem:

 A rant I saw online inspired this post. The above is my paraphrase of the last line of the rant. You might be thinking that seems harsh. The original version was even harsher. The poster's anger was fueled by someone whining. It was a long whine about how horrible their situation was.  The spent a lot of time blaming other people and things.  The real kicker was that they had continuously made the choices that had gotten them into the problem. And it was a situation with a simple solution. They just had to reverse the decisions they had made. Yes it would take time.  In this case they were the problem.  In your life you often are the problem.

It is your fault:

Let's look at an example. You get hit by another driver. It's their fault but they don't have insurance.  You are left with a thousand dollar repair bill, but the credit cards are already heavily used and you don't have anything saved up. You make enough money to have more than 1000 dollars in savings and if you only controlled your spending you'd have no credit card balances at all. The accident just happens to be the circumstance that exposes your bad behavior. The accident is their fault but the situation you have put yourself in is your fault.

What have we learned so far:

I am in the process of laying the groundwork for the Slackers Guide to Life. The last few posts in the series,  and this one, have been attempting to motivate you to take action. I have been trying to get you (me) to realize you(I) can change. What we've learned is that much of it is your fault and much of it is your responsibility. This realization should make you happy and excited. Taking ownership of your life means you can change. This means your life can change. This means things can get better.

Next up in the series is a post on the science of self improvement. Then perhaps I will get into some specifics of what I am doing in the slackers guide to life.