Taking Initiative

I Believe in Taking Initiative

I believe that it is important to take initiative. According to the dictionary, this means taking an introductory act or step; leading action. What if everyone was always waiting for someone else to start something? There would be no medical breakthroughs. There would be no solutions to anything because no one was willing to take the first step.

As Harry Browne once said, “The important thing is to concentrate upon what you can do- by yourself, upon your own initiative.” In life, there will probably be many times when things aren’t ideal. Instead of blaming others for the problems that exist, see what you can do to make them better. You can’t control what is already in place, but you can control what actions you take.

I think that my belief of taking initiative comes from my parents. They are always telling me to do things on my own, without someone else telling me to. Although I should, I’m not sure that I always follow this advice. Many times I wait for someone else to come up with a solution or idea, and then I follow. If everyone did this all the time, we would just all wait around hoping that someone would come along and do our work for us.

When I was in third grade at Winnona Park, I would always come home and talk to my dad about how there was no recycling. After a while of talking to him, he went to the school and talked to the administrators about recycling in our school. A year later, Winnona had recycling bins in all the classrooms. We also got a grant to improve our recycling program. All of this happened because I talked to my dad about a problem at my school.

Think about all the things that wouldn’t exist if no one was proactive, and everyone was lazy and unwilling to make or do anything. Cell phones, computers, light bulbs, radios, and probably every other modern day convenience wouldn’t be around. People would die from really easy to cure diseases because scientists wouldn’t have done any research. This world would be extremely bleak. Luckily, there are tons of extremely motivated people who take it upon themselves to make change. There are too many people, though who wait for others to solve problems. Everyone, including me, needs to take a stand for something.

Some people don’t take initiative or get started because they are afraid of failure, or not getting anything done about a problem. Some people might think that they will be wasting their time, or that doing something about an issue isn’t worth their time. The truth is that you can’t fail by trying to do something. Even if you don’t accomplish what you set out to do, you might inspire someone else to start something.

In conclusion, I believe that people need to take initiative for the good of the world. When you see something that’s not right or that needs improvement, take a stand. If you feel strongly about something, don’t just sit and wait. Go, because chances are the only thing that is stopping you is yourself.