Take initiative:

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Take initiative.

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Take charge of your life.

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You only get one.

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You can’t sit and wait your whole life for things to happen to you.

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You need to make them happen.

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Get out of your house.

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Talk to that person.

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Send that cold email.

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Apply for that job.

Start that new hobby.

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Who cares if everyone laughs at you.

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They’re not living your life.

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You are.

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You have a choice.

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Sit and watch it go by.

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Or make it the best life you can.

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Was reminded of this idea after reading a great fiction book.

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‘East of Eden’ by John Steinbeck.

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Don’t usually read fiction as you can tell by my library, but had to make an exception for this one.

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One of my best friends told me it changed his life.

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Any time a book does that for someone, you have to pick it up.

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Can’t say it changed mine, but it did make me think.

Especially this concept.

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This idea about ‘Timshel.’

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‘Timshel’ is a Hebrew word that translates to ‘Thou mayest.’

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The idea between the power of choice and free will.

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Do you decide your life?

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Or is your life set up for you?

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A philosophical debate as old as time.

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There is no right answer.

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There’s only your answer.

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In my opinion, you have a choice.

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You get to decide every day.

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You can’t choose a lot.

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Like where and when you were born, who you grew up around or what environment you were brought up in.

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But you can choose your friends.

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You can choose how to spend your time.

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You can choose how to focus.

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Some would argue all of this is predestined.

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Some god or being out there decided you were in the circumstances you’re in and whatever happens to you is up to someone else.

I’d take a different approach.

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You are exactly where you should be.

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All your actions and choices have gotten you here.

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Now what?

What do you want to do now?

What do you want out of this life?

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Where do you want to go?

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What do you want to achieve?

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Ask yourself those questions.

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Then do something about it.

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Act.

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Decide.

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Change.

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We have the history of human knowledge at our fingertips.

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Yet most of us are wasting it.

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We’re too busy watching brain rot on our phones instead of trying to better ourselves.

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We’re letting society and social media companies make our decisions for us, instead of taking charge of our lives.

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Stop.

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You’re wasting your time.

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You’re wasting your life.

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Again, I’ll repeat it.

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You only get one life.

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You’re born.

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Have a bunch of sensory experiences.

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Then you die.

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How you choose to interpret what happens in between is up to you.

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But it is your choice.

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You can decide the outcome of your life.

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You can decide the easy way out.

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What’s been given to you.

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What’s been around you.

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Just following the path that your parents set out for you.

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Or you can take charge.

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You can choose to take the difficult path.

You can choose to do something different.

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You can choose your own happiness over others.

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That choice is yours.

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So what are you going to do about it?

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Let life go by?

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Or take advantage of the opportunity you’ve been given?

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Do you believe in ‘Timshel?’

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I do.

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Take initiative.

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