Real life doesn't come with participation trophies

I could write for days about this topic as well as offshoot topics such as how kids are being raised, how new employees entering the workforce feel like they are entitled, how employers respond and more. Each time I hear people complain about how things are unfair and so-and-so doesn’t deserve whatever-it-is, it makes my blood boil. The sheer sense of entitlement and the concept of what the world may owe someone just baffles me. Let me break down a few things to you.

The world doesn’t owe you a thing. In fact, the exact opposite is true. You owe the world and will continue to pay into the world for your simple existence. You stop paying for your existence within the world and the world will soon write you out of it. The world allows you to exist as long as you move with it. What you do and who you become will fill some role.

People only care about you for the value you bring to them. They don’t care who you are inside. You fill some need for the people in your life, or they wouldn’t associate with you. Want an example? Chandler and Phoebe are hanging out, minding their own business, when Chandler gets shot. You run up “Hey I’m here to help!” Phoebe asks, “Are you a doctor?” “No, but I’m a really nice person.” Obviously that’s an extreme, but it illustrates my point. People’s basic needs for love, community, shelter, sustenance and so on all determine with whom they associate and why. You have to change in order to get people to change their opinions of you.

Become the person the people you want in your life want in their life. Change starts with one thing only, and that’s you. You don’t learn to play guitar by watching music videos. Want to make some friends? Start talking to strangers! Want to make more money? Develop new skills. Want to own a house? Better teach yourself how to budget and practice financial discipline. Without a change from you, you don’t become what you want to be. That brings me to my final point, which is…

You ONLY deserve exactly what you have earned. Don’t change, and nothing changes. You get what you deserve. If you change, take a class and develop some skills, suddenly you can use those things to your advantage. You can find that higher paying job, develop the next MUST HAVE software, or make those friends by learning to speak Spanish and increase the pool of potential friends by over 300 million people. The options are endless!

I want to leave everyone with this thought: People will get away with exactly what you let them. You have to fight for what you deserve, and then if you aren’t given what you have earned…well sometimes you may just have to take it.

Or in other words, Coffee is for Closers.

Justin Huereña Staff Blogger

P.S. In case you don’t understand the last line-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4PE2hSqVnk