Psychology 101: You are your life and you have the responsibility to co-create it …

 Psychology 101: You are your life, and after reaching adulthood, you have the inevitable and inalienable responsibility to co-create it in the image of the best life for which you were designed -You create your own opportunities -

January 4, 2022

By Hector Williams Zorrilla, psychologist and university professor

Millions of human beings have an irrational belief, as Dr. Albert Ellis calls it, that their own life is outside of them.

That is, life is something outside of them that "allows" generally unpleasant and unhappy experiences.

People with these beliefs about life express themselves about it in the following ways:

"Life is hard and difficult"; "Life punishes you and inflicts blows on you"; "Life is a raffle of luck and you never know what you will receive from it"; "Life has no meaning and you have to take it as it comes"; "Life is a heavy and difficult cross to carry"; "Life throws you in all directions"; "Life gives you surprises, surprises life gives you"; "I go wherever life takes me."

Those are irrational beliefs about life, and the families, communities and societies that develop and promote successful and happy human beings DO NOT teach their citizens these irrational beliefs about their own lives.

The life of a human being is NOT outside of that human being. That life is outside of who owns and expresses life is an illogical and irrational belief, and practicing that belief creates psycho-emotional, social and cultural distortions.

The opposite of that idea is the rational and true belief about human life:

You are your own life and your life is you. You own and express your life in every act of life, in every breath, in every beat of your heart, in every decision ...

Human beings are more powerful than we are willing to acknowledge and admit.

And the truth that you are your own life, is an axiomatic and irrefutable truth that clarifies and offers each human being the opportunity to enjoy his personal power.

But also, the truth that you are your own life is a powerful truth from which personal power emanates for each life that creates and practices it.

Psychology 101 teaches that there are two basic types of human motivation.

The first is the intrinsic motivation found within the person. It is the motivation from which the personal power or robust and positive self-esteem of each human being emanates.

The second is the extrinsic motivation that is outside the person. It refers to the aspirations, achievements and successes external to the persons, which motivate them to achieve physical and tangible goals (professional, financial, family, etc.).

The belief that you are your own life offers intrinsic motivation, thereby, strengthening and expanding your personal power.

In psychology we know this: in the strengthened intrinsic motivation there is enough personal power to guide you to co-create life as you choose to live it.

Here is the root and psycho-social origin of people who are self motivated to achieve their goals in life. People in this category manage to have and live successful, happy lives, full of achievements and personal, family and social satisfactions. These people believe that they are their own lives and they focus all their energies and resources to create them in the ways they aspire, desire and deserve to live them on this earth.

People who have the irrational belief that life is outside of them, wait for "life to happen", but life "passes" and passes without them noticing. Unfortunately, this second type of person "dies away" while waiting for life to happen.

Your life is you and it is yours, and you possess the power to create your own opportunities in your own life.

And in order to do that, you only have two options:

One, create your own life in the image and likeness of how you perceive it, define it, desire it, plan it and visualize it in your own mission and vision of life.

Two, let your life "pass and happen" in front of your eyes, while you wait and dream that life "has mercy on you and brings you something better in its laps."

You are your own life, and your life is you ...