“Bloom where you are planted”. This is a saying that I have heard many times in my life. On mugs, key chains, various note pads and anything else advertisers can think to put supposedly inspirational messages on. Everyone has probably heard some variation of this saying, and although I appreciate the sentiment of making the best of your situation, I have always found one simple flaw: why must I stay where I am planted?

I believe in the philosophy of being the architect of your own life. Take control of your actions and your decisions. Don’t just make the best of where you are but make where you are the best. I believe that being conscious of your life and actively working to make it greater is far more empowering than resigning yourself to where you are and deciding to not be upset about it. Life is yours for the taking and what is stopping you from making it everything you hoped it would be?

In the bloom analogy it is trying to say to make the best of where you are. Which is all well and good, but why can’t you change to someplace better suited for you? People are not plants and our roots are not tied down. We are free and mobile. If we don’t like the place we live in, we can move. If we don’t like the people we hang out with, we can meet different ones. If we don’t like our jobs, we can find different ones. I don’t believe that anything in this world is so permanent that there is nothing we can do to change it. If you want it enough and if you work for it, you can change anything about your life.

I believe in making your life what it is and taking ownership of it. It is far more rewarding to look back at a life you built for yourself and see everything you dreamed it would be, than to look back on your life and say you did as much as your surroundings would let you.

A side effect (if you choose to see it as such) of taking ownership of your life is that as much as you can take credit for the good things, you have to take the consequences of the bad things. When you become the narrator of your own story, you have no one to blame but yourself if you don’t get what you want. However, another side effect is that if you want something badly enough, there is no one but yourself in the way of you achieving your goals. When you stop letting other people and your surroundings dictate your limits, you raise your limits as high as you can see. There isn’t anything you can’t do and there is nothing stopping you. Get the education, read the book, move to the new city, change jobs, date the person. Whatever you want to do, you can do it.

Just be conscious of every decision you make and ask yourself “is this serving my cause?” “Do I have my best interests in mind?” The answer should be yes to both. Don’t bloom where you are planted, just bloom.