Well, it's the beginning of yet another year and we're all a little older and hopefully a little wiser. This is the time of year that many of us acknowledge what we have accomplished in the past year and begin thinking about what we want to accomplish in the upcoming year. Maybe some of us are even thinking on a larger scale about what we want to accomplish in our lives as a whole.

The great thing is that there's no one else that can really determine our choices, so we get to make all of those decisions for ourselves. Many people know exactly what they want and what they want to have happen in their lives. However, I can't help but notice that this freedom, to many people, can be a nightmare. You see, some people just can't make a decision about anything major and therefore seem to have no direction, purpose or connection with themselves. Knowing what they want to do is as foreign to them as rain on a desert.

It's not only frustrating for these non-committers, but it doesn't take them anywhere interesting on the journey of life. Isn't that what life is supposed to be...a journey, an adventure, or maybe just interesting?

There comes a time in each of our lives when we have to take the time to get to know ourselves and find out what will give us our joy. This is stuff that you can't find out about yourself unless you spend some serious time with your self. Get to know you! Find out what you like, what you want to do for a living and who you really want to be! This is crucial to saving yourself time when you get along further in life, and you haven't even begun to start your journey down the path that is your true path.

The later in life that you wait to pursue your true self, the harder it gets. We lose confidence and can see ourselves as failures, and then that becomes another obstacle in itself. Remember, it doesn't happen unless YOU make it happen.

Here's something else that seems to be popular these days: blaming your own failures on others. Why is it always someone else that keeps us from achieving what we want? Guess what? They don't! They really don't have that power even though some might think so. WE are the ones that create our universe whether we do it consciously or haphazardly. There are no successful victims! Be empowered, know thyself. Become the master of yourself, not the slave to your own desires.

It's not enough to just want to make things happen in your life; you have to commit to making things happen in your life. When we reach the point of accepting responsibility for our failures then we are preparing ourselves to take credit for our successes. However, if you never take any risks, you'll never fail or succeed. You'll spend a lot of time on the fence of frustration for not having gotten in the game at all and found out what you're made of.