By Jim Davis
Some of the best motivational quotes I’ve ever heard haven’t come from politicians or philosophers or coaches or ministers. Instead, they’ve come from pop culture, like movies or songs or books. One of my favorites comes from Todd Rundgren. It’s a poem that starts out his song “Fair Warning” and it goes like this:
You know, wishing won’t make it so
Hoping won’t do it, praying won’t do it
Religion won’t do it, philosophy won’t do it
The Supreme Court won’t do it,
The President and the Congress won’t do it
The UN won’t do it, the H-bomb won’t do it,
The sun and the moon won’t do it
And God won’t do it,
And I certainly won’t do it
That leaves you, you’ll have to do it. [1]
The poem has five key messages that I think are very important:
- People’s lives don’t change simply because they sit around hoping for them to; changes happen because people take the initiative to make them happen;
- Religion and philosophy might give us guidelines for how to live our lives, but we have to take the action to follow those guidelines;
- Our elected officials may take actions, but if we want those actions to be the ones we want them to take then we need to make our voices heard (or at least vote!);
- God hears all prayers, but the ones he answers are more likely to be ones asking for his help to achieve a goal than ones asking for him to simply give you something;
- If you want to transform your life, then you have to take responsibility for making it happen.
This is all great advice. And it’s very relevant to the work we do here at the Life Enrichment Center. The goal of the LEC is to help people transform their lives for the better. Our experience has shown that the clients who are most successful in making that transition are those who are ready to invest the time and effort to make change happen. The volunteers at the LEC can provide advice and tools to help clients make the change, but we can’t transform their lives for them.
It’s true that change can sometimes be a long, frustrating and difficult process. It’s also true that results aren’t always guaranteed. But the fact is that no one ever changes their life by simply sitting around waiting for change to happen, they do it by making a decision that they want to change and then committing themselves to make it happen. So if you want change to happen in your life, you need to get up and start working to make it happen. Because if you don’t, then it won’t.
THIS IS THE LIFE ENRICHMENT CENTER
“Because Everyone Has Value”
Jim Davis has been a volunteer with the Life Enrichment Center since 2019. His grandparents lived in East Dayton and he has many fond memories of what the area was like when he was growing up.
___________
