April 15, 2010: Watching paint dry

You can watch paint dry all day, and eventually you'll see the darker drier patches appear. It might only take you a few hours if you're lucky, and the person who painted the wall used quick dry paint. Or it might take you a whole day and night if they went and used a paint without the quick dry technology. There are a lot of things that could help your paint dry faster from the get go, but if you're not the person painting the wall then you don't really get to choose any of the details.

So the big question is, are you watching the paint dry or are you painting the wall yourself? When it comes to the choices and actions that need to be made or taken in your life, who is doing it? If you're watching the paint dry, then you're doing yourself a disservice. As a person, you are going to always want more than what you have, and you can't have everything you want if you're going to sit back and wait for it to come to you. Unfortunately, that's just not how the world we live in works. If you want to achieve and be somewhere better than where you are now, you're going to have to stop watching the paint dry and paint a room yourself. When you paint a room yourself, you can pick the quick dry paint and make sure you paint in thin even layers. No matter what, you're responsible for how your life turns out, if you want to be in the fast lane going forward you're going to have to step on the gas pedal yourself. You can't wait for someone else to push down the gas pedal for you, you've got to put your foot down, grit your teeth, and do it yourself.

Being pro-active in your life isn't just going through the motions though, it's about going out of your way to set yourself up with opportunities to grow. And the growth doesn't just have to be professionally or academically. So many people make the mistake of thinking that opening opportunities is only something you do in the work / career sphere or the academic sphere. It's also about meeting new people and bringing something else to your life that you can be proud of. Growing character and opinions and knowledge are things that you can learn any number of ways, and every one of those should be looked at as personal opportunity. But finding them should be personal responsibility. If you're proactive in your life and looking for those opportunities you will always find them. And when you find them, you're giving your life a chance to be great and you're giving yourself a chance to be great.

I've heard the saying, "Dare to be great" and I think it's a powerful way to think. Dare to be great, dare to be different, and dare to challenge yourself. Don't watch the paint dry, paint the room and point a fan at the walls. They'll be dry in a pinch and you can move on to the next room or just enjoy the room you've got. And if a fresh coat of paint can give a room new life, then accepting a new opportunity is just going to rocket you into personal greatness.

Love, Polly.