You cannot open the door of courage for someone else. They can only open that door themselves.

Many decisions in life are the same way. Take for example, self-esteem, confidence, boldness, determination, willingness etc. Other people can certainly help advance those thoughts/ decisions but in the end, the only person that can truly open those doors is you. See, one of the greatest powers in the human spirit is the power to decide. If you have ever had children, every parent knows this to be true. You can push, prod, influence and even sometimes demand, but ultimately it is the child’s decision.

Years ago, I read about a great counselor whose sole focus when counseling someone was to let the person think it was his/her decision. He would lead, guide, and suggest in the hopes that the person would make the decision to change and believe it was their decision. Pretty good stuff, right?

Most everything we do that is bad for us, all starts with a decision. I made one of those the other day when I ate two pieces of cake. Ha. No one lead me to do it, no one influenced me to do it, no one prodded me to do it. No siree, it was a decision I made. I am of course using a silly example like eating cake as a metaphor for the other serious decisions we make in life.

Here is the incontrovertible truth, the only person that can make a change in your life, is you. KT