“Circumstances are the rulers of the weak; they are but the instruments of the wise.” – Samuel Lover, Born Feb. 24, 1797.
Now, I can flip this one or two ways. The obvious way is to make this inspiration for you, dear reader. Don't let your circumstances become excuses that shackle you to the wall of mediocrity and blah blah.
Instead, I'm going to make this practical for you and YOUR readers.
Chances are, like the vast mass of humanity, your audience are letting their current circumstances dictate their lives.
They live responsively to their situation, rather than proactively taking control of the situation and changing it to better suit them.
Often, this resignation comes about because they lack power, knowledge, or resources to change anything. Really, society has kind of been built this way on purpose, since ancient times.
If not to keep the rabble productively conforming to the will of the elite, then at least to be a safety net for those who are content to scrape by on what scraps fall off the tables of others.
But what if they had the power, knowledge, and resources to change things? What if they could change their circumstances from ones where some far-off ruler dictates what they are and what they can do…
…And instead turn those same circumstances into a beneficial jumping-off point for grander endeavors?
How can you take stagnant, stifling situations and morph them into descriptions of incubators for greatness?
How can you turn a well worn work rut, and an unfulfilled personal life, into the starting point of a hero's journey?
There is a reason that kind of fiction is so popular as a momentary imagined escape from the average boring life.
You must change your own life and lead by example. Take what you’ve got at hand, scrape together whatever else you can find within reach, and then make something better.
You show your audience again and again how to make lemonade from life's lemons.
Or even better, show them how to stuff those lemons into a tube sock, swing it around over their heads, and beat life's ass with it.
They don't actually have to do it, mind you. But they sure like reading about it, and watching you do it.
They'll even pay you money to show them how, and subsidize you being able to do it in the first place.
And that gives YOU the power and resources to capitalize on your circumstances instead of vice versa. All that means is you lack the knowledge.
And that's what I try to pack these posts with every day.