If you’re the kind of man who wakes up thinking about your problems or that project you can’t let go of, this is especially for you. As harsh as it is to say, there’s a point in every life when we must take full responsibility for the paths we choose and the steps we take. Eventually, life requires us to stand accountable for every choice we make. Bad decisions are consequences for our poor choices and real growth and maturity means shouldering responsibility.

I’m not writing this to sugarcoat, just here to give clarity. Rather than criticizing others, I’ll put my own story out there (just a few small details). This isn’t meant to attack anyone either, rather for people struggling to learn from it. After all, I also learnt life from amazing authors.

I didn’t request the poverty, the fractured home, or the language barrier among locals I was handed at birth. Yet owning the responsibility to fix those beginnings was mine alone and I carried it. Life doesn’t ask permission, it simply asks us to take responsibility for what comes next. Does it suck? Sure. But let’s be honest. I’ve always believed we’re left with only two choices. Either you make the most of what’s on your table or you don’t. Either you do everything you can with the best choices you have available or you remain stuck forever. Keep in mind, not making a decision is also a decision. At the end of the day, it boils down to those two choices. Owning and accepting the harsh reality is the reason I’ve never ended up truly lost.

Every significant piece of our life, the people we date, the friends we hold close, the people we surround ourselves with, the work we choose, the city we call home, is shaped by our own decisions. In the end, it’s our own choices and those choices create our own path. Maturity is realizing the choices we make in our life have consequences. And more importantly, it is realizing that your problems and projects are on your own hands because not everyone gets the quiet privilege of someone stepping in to help when it matters most. For many of us, that kind of support simply isn’t part of the story we’re given. My advice? Don’t rely on unreliability.