Go Out And Chop Your Own Wood
I’m not really one for New Year Resolutions and have never hopped on the New Year, New Me bandwagon. I just think if you really want to make a change in your life, you should do it right away instead of waiting for January.
I recently started reading the book my late grandfather wrote, Minding Everybody’s Business by Carl E. Brinnel, when this quote stuck out to me: “Go out and chop your own wood” (II). If you want something to happen in your life then go out and make it happen.
Instead of complaining about how much you hate the mess in your house, put actions to words and clean the mess. If you want to learn how to cook then spend a weekend learning how to cook. If you want to learn yoga then take a class or go on YouTube for a lesson. If you want to read more then check out the library. If you start with the small things then maybe the bigger changes won’t be too hard to conquer.
How are you going to succeed in life if you just sit around and wait for opportunities to fall in your lap? You’re not. It’s great if you haven’t hit too many road bumps in life but I think the ones who have paved a successful path after a struggle are the strongest. The ones who’ve risen from a disadvantage. What are you going to learn if everything gets handed to you? Nothing. Last summer I got so frustrated when my peers were handed jobs just because they knew someone while I was applying for job after job with no luck. From my summer job hunt experience, I have learned I need to step a little out of my comfort zone to work harder at what I do want. A summer of unemployment set my determination to successfully get a job on my college campus. Not finding a summer job hasn’t been my hardest struggle but I still learned from it.
Now, as it is ironically January and the start of yet another year, here is a reminder that if you want to do something beneficial with your life then do it. No one is going to make your life happen but you. Go out and chop your own wood.
