On Role Models

The truth about following people is this: you will be let down. My Mom is a good role model for certain things, and not a great one for others. Sometimes I purposely do what she does to see if she’ll find it acceptable, and lo and behold, she gets angry. Why? Because she knows it's wrong. I used to do the same with my dad, brother, sister, significant other just to prove a point; but I realized you don't need to perform the actions they do in an attempt to help them see what they're doing wrong.

By far, the hardest thing in the world to learn, is that people must be willing to do things themselves—that you nor I can make them do anything. We can make efforts to show them a better way of doing things, but oftentimes they already know. People know it's bad to consistently drink until they’re drunk, to smoke so much it affects their relationships. People know they should eat breakfast in the morning. People know gambling is a dangerous habit. Their will to change, however, is what is lost.

The reason that will is lost is because of one underlying truth to all these situations: they lack a real dependence on themselves. People begin to rely heavily on these short-lived bad habits and forget that Self-Reliance is the a long-term game of trust, practice and faith.

Understand the goodness in you, the natural abilities you have and the reliance you need on Yourself. The You that is capable of overcoming anything is divine and is God and is Good and is beautiful and rightly so. Don't follow people. Follow Goodness.