The road to empowerment

Self improvement, empowerment, enlightenment. They all mean more or less the same thing. It is the never ending journey of personal enrichment for mind body and soul. There is always more room for personal growth and improvement regardless of how far we have come. Just past the current obstacle is another breakthrough.

One may wonder, if perfection is unobtainable, if there is always more to do, why bother at all? I feel there are several good answers to this.

Which of the following sounds better to you? You can strive for perfection and perhaps get close but maybe fall a little short. Or you can shoot for mediocrity and probably make it. If you make it, go you, you succeeded at being average. But if you fail at mediocrity where does that leave you?

That's why they have a a saying "go big or go home" because nobody cares if you strive for and succeed at being mediocre. I'd much rather work my tail off striving for perfection (and fail) than coast my way through being average.

Also something most people seem to miss is that enlightenment is about the journey, the path itself, the road you take and all of the choices you make while upon it. Where you end up is far less important than each step of how you got there.

We have character development over time. As we have new experiences we learn more about both ourselves and the world around us. Our minds expand to encompass new ideas that we could not have conceived of at the start of our journey. You are not the same person that you were five years ago. And you will not be the same person five years from now that you are today.

There may come a time where you have achieved all the goals that you had previously set for yourself.  And if that does happen, you will set new goals and milestones for yourself. The reason for this is that what you believe is the perfect you and the perfect life for you changes as you accomplish more and more.

And last but not least, the only way to have any real control over your life is to stop coasting along and letting others make your decisions for you.Stop letting your parents run your life. Quit blaming other people for your problems.You get to stand up and take responsibility for your life and you get to be the one that makes sure it is on track so to speak, as well as deciding for yourself what on track looks like.

Why bother? Because the people that "bother" have a real a chance of succeeding, of having their lives work for them instead of against them. They are people that matter and make a difference in the world. Why bother? Because what kind of person would you be if you didn't?

Everyone has their place. But why be a sheep when you could be a wolf? Why let things just happen to you when you can be the kind of person that makes things happen?