How To Reach Your Ultimate Achievements: “Being The Awaited Miracle”

Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, JK. Rowling, and a personal favorite, Jim Carrey, are all just a few of many individuals who share one wonderful trait in common to reach their ultimate achievements. They all share the drive to take initiative. Not just the occasional initiative that treats people to a Starbucks drink today or make them decide to fix their bed for once this morning. This is in reference to the never-ending initiative that is applied despite the countless failures. These inspiring successors make it evident that making a habit of applying constant self-initiative towards a desired aspiration, rather than expecting it to eventually happen on its own, sparks the commencement of personal gratification, immense growth, and deliverance in one’s life.

Like many of the influencers that were mentioned, I too have had my fair share of hardships. My family and I lived in a very small town in the island of Puerto Rico. A town where standard procedures at the sound of neighborhood gunshots were of second nature to my siblings and I. With my parents not having attended college and struggling to sustain their jobs, our lifestyle was rather uncompromising. From a young age, the sight of domestic abuse, mental illness, and financial struggle in my household were factors that played part in our daily lives. I have witnessed many forms of familial conflicts: plates I’d picture as flying saucers being thrown across the kitchen between my father and mother during one of innumerable heated arguments, food taken off my mother’s plate to fill ours, women I did not know having playtime with my father in my parents’ bedroom, crucial living items gradually disappearing, hospital visits to my mother after nearly overdosing on pills in an attempt of taking her own life, and a nasty divorce. These struggles made my future goals very clear, I aspired to be stable.

Unfortunately, I was convinced that I did not have the resources necessary to reach that goal. My true belief was that due to the extreme lack of parental guidance and the economic class that I was brought into there was an automatic undercover set up for failure.

Despite the weary feeling, I always put my very best effort in school. This was because school was the only tangible aspect of my life. The only factor I had control over. I knew deep down that was the only way out. I graduated high school with a 3.8 GPA and with a sore neck from the number of club and honor society chords I had earned. So far, I was confident about my stance in the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle. That was until, I enrolled into three flex courses my first term at Valencia College and failed all of them miserably. As a result of not passing my classes, the Financial Aid that was initially granted to me was then suspended. I could not afford school and nor could my parents. That is when I took a pessimistic outlook on life and thought to myself “Of course this would happen, it is literally in my DNA”. I failed and I fell.

Shortly after that, I gave into the life I believed was paved for me by moving a way to North Carolina with a not-so-serious partner to desperately escape the toxicity of my household and start off fresh. We rented a house with a nice front yard and a fireplace. I believed I was doing better because at least I had a roof over my head I could call my own and believed I could sustain. After only nine months of living there my partner quit his job and refused to work to commit to his passion of music. I was then forced to live my life to work rather than working to live. My days were a constant loop of working twelve-hour shifts for five days a week, having to endure constant verbal abuse from my partner, coming home to cook and clean, to then go to sleep and do the same routine all over again. It was hell. After a while, my income alone was not enough, and multiple late bills began to stack up. We were hungry some days, hardly surviving. Many nights I would cry in realization that I was recreating the very image I grew up watching throughout my childhood at only eighteen years old.

“Time heals all wounds” yet, the longer I’d wait for our situation to improve the more I would feel a foreign weight torturously steep into my chest. I needed to act. I could not wait for a miracle to provide me that which I was so desperately yearning for. I knew I had more to give and that this lifestyle did not belong to me. Debating my failure was no longer an option. One night, I instantaneously decided to pack my bags and drive to Florida to pursue my education again. It was unnerving to start from scratch, but it was a step that needed to be taken, and I knew no one was going to take it for me. If it weren’t for discovering the power of self-initiative, I would have been stuck in a destructive living environment, codependent, and probably would have never proceeded to inhabit a profitable career. Taking ownership of my life then, has brought me to where I am today. Being the first college student in my family, succeeding in my classes, making use of my time deliberately, and being self-reliant are just a few of many triumphs I’ve gained as a result of my actions.

The proactive and rewarding act of self-driven initiative is the ability of one being able to propose a solution with anticipation and acting on it prior to someone else having to ask about it or act on it on behalf of that person. It lies solely inside of the person. A scope of self-determination that stars in the conviction of freedom to choose one’s personal destiny. This is to be considered as a, “make it happen” kind of attitude. When a young girl picks up her bags and leaves everything behind despite her greatest fears to begin pursuing her education again, she is choosing not to procrastinate her goals and is taking the initiative to take immediate action in order to alter her pathway in the direction she would like it to shift. That is an example of self-initiative. No one asked her, forced her, or advised her to do it. Only herself. In having done that, she grew to feel fulfilled with the results of her choice and felt empowered to continue applying the habit.

Luckily, acquiring this emotional skill does not require being in a certain level of economic class, race, gender, or age gap! It is accessible to all and can be developed at any stage in one’s life. However, it will require discipline. Discipline starts with the little things, such as, completing homework in advance, on cleaning day putting down devices and focusing on the task, initiating the first step to an objective one wishes to pursue, starting to do just a bit more than what is required, and taking action when there is room to do it later. This programs the mind to acquaint wanting to the act of doing. The benefits of getting started now rather than later, can be life altering.

In incorporating this habit, the likeliness of experiencing positive outcomes drastically increase, self-assurance enhances, liberation begins through the power to overcome, and exposure to a colorful palette of newfound opportunities come to light. Specially work opportunities. The best part about self-initiative is that it is driven by motivation! The extent of accomplishments is dictated by personal desire. With motivation in one hand and action in the other, the ultimate goal is just a few steps away from reach.

What one can expect from lack of self-initiative is profusely the opposite. Codependency becomes a major part of overall character, procrastination develops into a custom, and contentment to lower standards is now the norm. Why are these unwanted characteristics? Unlike self-initiative, these are components of stale work ethic. They diminish the chance of potential growth opportunities by enabling the capability of full independence in an individual. Often, it is difficult to recognize when one is in this state of repetitive behavior, so it is imperative to be as self-aware as possible. Humanity is still a real thing; people get off track and that is totally okay! However, what truly draws the line between the successful and unsuccessful are the individuals who decide to take the action necessary to get back on the correct path.

A subtle secret in life is that all dreams are valid and fully attainable to every single person on this planet. The individuals who apply will, desire, and unwavering implementation, gain access to their deepest treasures: liberation, fulfillment, and endless possibilities. Those who do not, are likely at a stage of hesitation and unassertiveness. One should not wait a lifetime for dreams to come knocking on their door. At a certain point in an individual’s life, the choice lies within oneself. One can choose to continue to make relentless excuses as justifications for a non-satisfactory life, or they can choose to pack their bags in the middle of the night straight down I-95 to reach their full potential and chase their dreams.