When it comes down to it, except in some extreme circumstances, everything in our lives is not only completely under our control, but down to nothing more than the effort we put in.

Problem is, today many people struggle with the needed effort to make their dreams become reality, they (or rather we) have trouble working towards what would make them happy or make their lives more enjoyable.

Nature outside of man has no problems with this sort of thing, mainly because if they don’t push daily for their own survival, then they might perish, at the very least they would not be eating on any day that they decided to be lazy.

The subject matter has come up in this space before, whether at that time I danced around it or tackled it head on and with good reason, maybe I’m not the only one who feels like they know what they should do, they have always known, they just have hidden it from themselves because it’s scary to realize you are not trying to reach your true potential.

I’m doing it too of course, I have skills I do not sharpen and hone and I have dreams I just sleep on, it is the path to a less than fulfilling life and that damn ticking clock is always in my head…and I’d wager many other heads around me too.

Even the best excuses are really no excuse, I have legs that are not the best, walking for short periods is painful as hell but there are videos I’ve seen where handicapped people still participate in sports or the heroes we aspire to and write stories about, both fiction and nonfiction, who push pass things like pain and loss and keep fighting.

So what is missing in us?

Sometimes I think we have become spoiled…we don’t have to hunt for food like the animals, we don’t have to be aware that in any instant we could be in a fight for our very existence, except we are.

We have only switched out the factors, not the sum.

Everyday we still fight for our food, but through traffic and time clocks and jobs we no longer like, just to get pieces of paper to buy our food.

I think it’s probably causing most of us grief to be honest once all is said and done. My first job was at of all things a cosmetics store where although I was just hired to do stock work on weekends convinced them to let me work as a cashier there on a few weekdays.

Trust me, I did not do that due to enjoying the job but more like I was a foolish eighteen year old trying to buy an engagement ring for the ‘love of his life.’

Thing is I’m sitting here trying to inspire all of you because I am having a hard time inspiring myself to do the same. Meanwhile I also know, much like the knowledge of what I should be doing with my time, that the best way to inspire anyone is by example.