Received this list the other day from an email service that I subscribe to.  The top 10 ways to give away your power according to Tut.com are:

  1. Asking others what they should do.
  2. Thinking God decides who gets what.
  3. Worrying about how their dream will come true.
  4. Thinking they have dues to pay.
  5. Attaching to unimportant details and outcomes.
  6. Believing in soul mates.
  7. Thinking karma or spiritual contracts are absolute.
  8. Fear of anything, especially falling in love.
  9. Waiting for their ducks to line up before acting.
  10. Choosing to be unhappy.

This struck me for three reasons.

  1. Some points e.g.#2 “Thinking God decides who gets what” would cause  some people I know to have a melt down.
  2. How—as relatively enlightened as I like to think of myself —I am as much affected by some of the above points as the next guy.
  3. How some beliefs are perpetuated in our consciousness through innocent cliche.

“Don’t worry, what goes around comes around, it’s karma.”

“See you tomorrow … God willing.”

“I’m waiting to get all my ducks lined up before I call the meeting.”

“Could s/he be The One.”

“I hope one day I will be happy/things will work out.”

We hear people make statements like these all through our lives and we never really stop to consider their meanings, and implications to our lives.   We never question the underlying ‘truth” of any of them.

There is one essential message behind this list.

You and you alone are responsible for how your life turns out

Whether that’s absolutely true or not doesn’t really matter.

It’s just the only philosphy that will have you be undaunted in the face of failure.  It’s the only philosophy that has you act for the sake of your future, instead of sitting back and hoping things work out.

After all doesn’t the bible say “The Lord helps those who help themselves?”

Actually it doesn’t, and that’s an interesting omission, … because it’s one thing I’m certain my God would say.

Maybe S/He just missed the publishing deadline, or maybe I just have a different God than everybody else.  Now wouldn’t that be cool.