We only come around once

I've always thought how fortunate or lucky or blessed or whatever other word you want to use to describe my good fortune of being born in this country. None of us had anything to do with where we were born or the family we were born into because it's biologically determined rather than socially created. There's a lot of places in the world I would like to visit but only one place I want to live and that's right where I am.

I know that most Americans feel the same way, yet it's both sad and tragic to watch how some squander the chance to reach their potential. There are a lot of people working at jobs they hate, living in houses they don't like, driving vehicles that aren't at the top of their list and living in relationships that bring them more pain than joy. And yet they don't do anything to change their situation because change involves risk, however slight it might be, and they're afraid of it.

So they waste their days and nights maintaining the status quo as if they're going to live forever when they know they're not. The death process begins at birth and every morning when we wake up, we have one less day to live than we did the day before. So the burning question is, why don't we change our lives while we still can?

Much of the reason lies in the way we were raised, what sociologists call the socialization process. Some people are given positive self esteem and a can-do attitude by their parents and other family members and others aren't. Some people are spoiled into thinking that the world always owes them something while others are taught that having the things that will bring us happiness and joy requires hard work and effort. But even though the socialization process is responsible for our basic personality and our outlook on life, it can still be changed through personal motivation and individual awareness.

Unfortunately, it seems that some people always make bad choices. I've heard many people say that if it wasn't for bad luck, they wouldn't have any luck at all. Even when given a clear choice to change their life for the better, they still don't because they're afraid of change when change is one of the few constants we have in life. They're afraid of risk, even though our lives are filled with risks. So they choose to keep on doing what they've been doing, even though their lives aren't the way they want them to be.

And they never seem to realize that they're running out of time. We have limited windows of opportunity before those windows close for good, and yet some people turn their backs on those chances. It's one thing to be in a life situation where there are no options at all to change who you are, what you have or what you do but for those who do have the chance and still don't do it, they commit an injustice to themselves and the people who care about them and doom their own fate in the process.

Time is short and fleeting. If you're going to change your life for the better, you need to do it while you can.

You may not have another chance.