The victim wonders why nothing ever goes their way.
The conquerer wonders how lucky they are.
The victim wishes things were different.
The conquerer makes things different.
The victim passes blame and points fingers.
The conquerer accepts blame and moves on.
The victim argues minutiae.
The conquerer understands what matters.
The victim accepts reality and waits for for someone to create their own utopia.
The conquerer rejects reality and chooses to create their own.
The victim whimpers.
The conquerer roars.
The victim complains of unchanging impossibility.
The conquerer relishes the challenge of the impossible.
***
You are born a conquerer. Fearless and focused on adventure, you’re programmed to do whatever peeked your curiosity. Over time, the world tries to mold you into a victim of sorts via a steady diet of lies and half-truths from people with their own lives:
- It’s not your fault.
- You can’t change it.
- It’s too hard.
- It’s just the way things are.
- It takes too long.
- It’s out of your control.
- Your expectations are too high.
- You’re unreasonable
- Just give up.
- Just accept it.
- It’s impossible.
- Settle.
You’re a conquerer. Victims settle. Conquerers don’t settle.
***
We’re just a few days away from the New Year. It’s an arbitrary date, but when it starts, a remarkable thing happens. For the next 365 days, you get to choose whether or not you’re going to be a victim or conquerer. Because it’s really a matter of choice. Bad stuff can happen to you (life is hard, bad stuff happens to everyone), but the only way you go from “normal” to “victim” is to choose to be identified as one. A victim suffers in every circumstance and nothing is ever in their control (not even their own actions). It’s simply a consequence of what happened. A conquerer knows there are things that are circumstances that are out of his control, but in spite of them (and sometimes because of them), they keep going, impressing their will upon the world. The last few months, this quote has become my mantra.
To hell with circumstances, I create opportunities – Bruce Lee
Life is an adventure and it’s way too short of one to be a victim. Choose to create opportunities. Choose to be a conquerer.
Love it man, such a brilliant way of thinking! I just wish more people would see it that way.
But as they say – if it was easy, everyone would be doing it
Cool article, and completely agree! Any suggestions on how to convert a victim to a conqueror so two of us are on the same “playing field”?
I think it’s just a mindset shift. That sounds super cheesy, but as soon as it becomes “not-okay” for you to pass the blame to someone else, I think you start viewing your decisions, and your life differently.
Yea love this…
Its all about taking 100% responsibility for your life..
“The buck stops here”, when you finally accept this reality, your life will begin to change..
Joel, I think this is one of your best posts yet. It gets right to the point. Well done.
Keep fighting the good fight, man.
By one committing to life time growth, you automatically become a conquerer, period..
Brilliant post Joel. Very powerful. While the victim sees impossibilities and resigns to failure, the conquerer sees no failure and only opportunities.
I love this and it came at a great time for me. I went to the movies last night and a couple of the scenes reminded me of something terrible that happened to me years ago. I felt angry, sad, depressed. Until I read this post! Thanks Joel. The past is the past. I conquered what happened years ago. I’m not going to let it influence me now.
I’m so glad I found your blog!
You always get to choose – never forget 🙂
Great post! I love that Bruce Lee quote. If you sit around waiting for life to happen to you, it’s going to pass you by instead.
Bruce Lee has been kicking my butt lately.
Oh, you’re so on a roll with this posts sir – I’m loving them. What a gift – thank you!
Happiness,
Elena
I LOVE this post! I will be printing this out and hanging it where I can see it every day, with the conquerer’s traits highlighted!
Love it 🙂
Dude, that pumped me up so much I feel the need to do 100 pushups now and its midnight.
Your writing is to be admired man
im gonna go do pushups 🙂
Go knock ’em out!
This is the first post i have read on your blog. Some GOOD stuff here.
Love “The conquerer roars.”
*ROAR*
Heck, yeah!
The victim whimpers, the conquerer roars! Love that.
Happy New Year to you Joel, have an awesome 2012
yep, we can chose to be the victor or victim..
love that..
I believe its about reality. If you ignore it where you will be, in your illusion ? Its called self deception. Its very superficial thinking which can lead even more far from reality and yourself. We are just only humans, so if it hurts, you must accept it, cause life its not fair all the time and pain is unavoidable. I believe you must experience you own individual authentic experience, not suppressing it with cheesy affirmations. And then starting create your own reality. Real strength and authenticity comes from struggle, thats how you know life from all the angles. Everything else is delusion and still in subconscious way the same existing pain.
Between being real without facade and having honesty and being as a victim and complaining can be very thin line sometimes because we can’t control fully our emotions. So you must feel when that victim negativity already takes a place. Its just simply a signal that you feel helpless and devastation.