Your Situation Doesn’t Define You

So many times we let our situation, where we are in life, define who we are.

I’m fat. I’m poor. I’m unemployed. I’m rich. I’m a brain. I’m divorced. I’m single. I’m a virgin. I’m unattractive. I’m blonde. I’m shy. I’m not smart enough. I’m “insert label here”…

How about “I’ve got no arms and no legs.” Think that might define a person?

It doesn’t have to.

In fact, your situation doesn’t define you. It reveals you.

Who you really are as a person is revealed by how you handle, how you react, to a situation, not the situation itself. The fact that you’re unemployed, or blonde, or Italian, or divorced, fat, thin, poor, rich, or whatever label you apply to yourself means nothing outside of the context of how you handle that situation.

Here’s an example of what I mean. Let’s say you’re unemployed (and some of you probably are). You can handle that by looking for sympathy from family and friends, beating yourself up, presenting yourself as a pathetic figure who can’t find a job. That’s your choice, and if you do, the world will treat you as a sympathetic, or maybe pathetic, creature. “Oh, I feel so bad for John. He’s been out of work and looks terrible. He’s not handling it well. I don’t even know what to say when I’m around him.”

Of course, you could take unemployment as an opportunity to find your passion. Maybe you could volunteer at a homeless shelter, an animal shelter, or some other place. You could take the time between interviews to learn a new skill. Maybe you just say screw it and go off, travel to some new places, and create a blog based on pictures of your travels. Those would be other choices.

If you chose one of those options, don’t you think the world might view you differently than pathetic little John? Unemployment didn’t define these two, how they handled it did.

So, back to having no arms and no legs. That’s a little tougher than being unemployed, blonde, or fat, and probably would define a lot of people in that situation.

But even that doesn’t have to.

Meet Nick Vujicic. I’m guessing he won’t fit whatever definition you had in your head for a guy with no arms and no legs, unless that definition included swimming, boating, fishing, combing hair, and smiling more than most people.