I Am Not Alone
91. I am not alone.
I thought long and hard about how to most accurately describe this Tool. One of the key components of this book is understanding and accepting that the illustration that is your life is for the most part determined by you. Your present situation has been constructed by the habits and attitudes you have harbored up to this point. When you begin to accept that your present situation is largely due to circumstances that you alone have created, there is the pitfall in believing that you are alone.
Ultimately, understanding that we control that path we choose to take leads us to the thought process that we are traveling this path solely by ourselves. Hence, the belief that we are alone and there is no one who understands what we are dealing with. This statement is partially right; we do carve our destiny by ourselves but we definitely aren’t alone.
The feeling of being alone is one of the biggest roadblocks to reaching success and personal growth. When we have the feeling that no one understands what we are going through, we feel as if our situation is different from everyone else’s. When we buy into this thinking, it gives us the biggest reason for making excuses. Subscribing to the belief that no one understands what I am going through leaves the avenue open for copouts and blame. The truth is you are not alone. The path you are going through, no matter how rocky, has been travelled by many before you and many more to come. So using the Tool that “I am not alone” gives us the strength to persevere.
The truth is while no one will ever take the exact same path up or around the mountain, there are only a handful of paths that can be taken. Some will take the easy way up, some will take the long way, and many of us will encounter traps, dead ends and runarounds, but the truth remains that someone has been exactly where you are before.
There is always someone there who has been where you are and is willing to help. This can be someone from Alcoholics Anonymous, someone in a similar job, a stranger, or whatever you consider God or a higher power. This is one of the things that I think is the coolest about life. That for the most part, there is someone who has been where you are before and is willing to share with you the techniques and ultimate path to work your way out. What is also a constant is that they can’t do it for you, but they will help you. Once again, you are not alone.
Caution, people are willing to throw you a lifejacket, but they can’t make you grab it. The first step in using this Tool is understanding you are not alone. The second step is finding the group that has been around your area of the mountain. Then lastly, understanding that the only way you will end up alone is to continually avoid the help that exists and the help others are trying to provide you. There is plenty of room on the mountain top, but those close to it or on it are only willing to help those who are willing to help themselves.