Are You The Passenger Or Driver Of Your Life?

“There are two primary choices in life; to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” -Denis Waitley

Keep this in mind when you are faced with situations that leave you with these two options. In choosing to accept conditions as they exist, you are allowing for other people and things to dictate what happens in your life while you take a passive and helpless stance. When you do that, you become a spectator to the point that you never know when you should step in to take control of your life. When you do accept your role as the person that must change the conditions, you go from allowing other people and things to take control of your life to you being the one that makes the moves and changes things in your life for the better. That will make you feel like the driver of your life versus being a passenger.

I remember prior to the military that my situation was not the prettiest of situations. I was living in a house that had mole and a large hole through the roof, a job that I had realized that I had reached my limit, and my marriage was faced with some serious crisis. At that time, I knew that I was not living the life that I had envisioned for myself, and I had to make some choices.

I could have accepted the conditions, but it probably would have meant that I still stayed in that house, continued working the dead-end job, and probably wind up getting divorced. If  I did that, I probably would have blamed the world for my problems at that time and would not had any issues doing so, but I chose not to.

I took control of the situation, and decided to join the military to help me change my life. The move was risky because I was risking my current situation and marriage for a total unknown. Despite the risk, I accepted that risk understanding it was my responsibility for changing the mess that I had gotten myself into. The results of me accepting the responsibility to change the situation are the following:

• I am enjoying a successful career in the military for 10 years and counting.
• My marriage has survived that tough period and is still going strong-13 years and counting.
• I am providing a better situation for my family living wise and travel wise.
• Most importantly, I learned that I am the one who is responsible for why things happen in my life, and I am the one responsible for changing them.

You too can make the choice to accept your responsibility in your life to make the changes necessary to make your life better. For each day that you choose to accept life as it is and not take control is another day that you allow for your situation to become helpless and allow for others to make choices for you. Let’s remember that true change does not happen when you allow other people to do it for you and accept things as they are; they happen when you take control and make the change you want to see and be in life.

-Michael J. Fite