Helping Hands

The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm.
- Swedish Proverb

How many people do you know who complain how awful their life is or that no one is willing to help them? I’m not talking about the people who have just found themselves in a bad situation. I’m talking about the people who perpetually blame everyone but themselves for the state of their affairs.

Often, we help those people for quite some time, until we finally realize there is a pattern of usage. We actually become enablers of the very behaviors we are trying to stop. Let’s turn the table, how often do we ourselves, become caught in that same cycle of self-defeatism? We complain and whine to those around us how something or everything in our lives is wrong and no one wants to help.

The reality is that if we don’t make the first move or moves, why should anyone pitch in to help? That picture isn’t going to paint itself, the book isn’t going pick up a pen, the garden won’t plant the seeds (or at least not the ones we want!), or the promotion/job won’t happen if we don’t first make the effort to prove or help ourselves. When we start making things happen for ourselves, others are encouraged to join in the parade. That’s what hands are for!