{"id":21772,"date":"2004-01-14T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T07:15:14","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T07:15:14","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T07:15:14","slug":"you_define_who_you_are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/01\/14\/you_define_who_you_are\/","title":{"rendered":"You Define Who You Are"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH:<\/strong> <\/strong>We live in an era where you\u2019re complaining about unemployment. You\u2019ve got eight kids that are employed, and you are whining about it. You know, you can call them statistics, but there are surveys of the American people, the happiness index is as high as it\u2019s been in who knows how long, particularly since 9\/11. Economic opportunity, the consumer confidence index, all these things – contrary to what you say. Now, this is not to say that there isn\u2019t some suffering going on out there. Nobody always does well, and people that do well today may not do as well tomorrow. You know, things are cyclical and run in cycles. <\/line> It takes work, it takes stick-to-it-iveness and nothing is easy. And that\u2019s the problem I\u2019m hearing when I talk about, or hear about people living at home, they\u2019re looking for the easy way or the shortcut in order to acquire the lifestyle that they want. This is not to deny that there are people that are hurting and not doing well out there. But to say that that is the national sample and so forth is a mischaracterization of how life is in the country today, and certainly what the opportunities are. Now, if you want to talk about underemployed, I have a theory – and I know this is going to be very, very, to some of you people, very cold and very chilly, but if you are underemployed, there\u2019s one reason for it: You. <\/line>Not you personally, sir, but I mean, if somebody is underemployed, there\u2019s something they can do about it. You don\u2019t have to sit there and just take it. Life is not what happens to you. Life is what you make it, life is what you do. Too many people have the attitude that life is what happens to you. You grow up, you go out there, and here comes this glob of mess thrown at you and that glob of mess thrown at you – you have no choice but to take it. You do have a choice! You don\u2019t have to take it. Some things you do obviously, but I mean you work toward getting to some degree of independence and contentment, but the freedom and the opportunity exist in this country to do it. <\/line><\/p>\n

You know, it takes all kinds, and thank goodness there are some people who think life is what happens to them because we need \u2019em. There are certain things that only they will do. But anyone is free to grab hold of the reins of life and make life what they want it to be. It\u2019s hard sometimes, because you know why? Because for most people grabbing hold of the reins of life and making your life what you want it to be is change, and change or anything new is very, very hard. Routines are easy, habits are easy, and sitting there and being a victim and blaming somebody else for your lot in life, that\u2019s easy. <\/line>Victimhood is the easiest thing in the world to do, and it\u2019s a trap. But grabbing hold of things and realizing you only have one life, and you only have so much time. And some people are raised with this notion that life\u2019s not to be enjoyed, too. Some people think life is meant to be endured for whatever reason – parents, grandparents, church, religion, I don\u2019t know. Some people think life is not meant to be enjoyed. You\u2019re having too much fun then you\u2019re not doing enough serious stuff. You\u2019re not doing enough serious stuff, then you\u2019re not working hard, whatever. We have all of these conventional wisdom ideas we\u2019re raised with that imprison us. <\/line>Who says life\u2019s not to be enjoyed, and who is to define that but you? Life could be made whatever you want it to be, but if too many people sit around and think they\u2019ve got no control over it, they\u2019ve got no say-so over it, life is whatever happens to them. It\u2019s not, unless you allow it. Who\u2019s to say you shouldn\u2019t be happy? Who\u2019s to say you shouldn\u2019t have peace in your life? Who\u2019s to say that you have to go through suffering 24 hours a day, seven days a week? Why do you have to do that? Who said that? <\/line><\/p>\n

Somebody told you that when you were young, somebody implanted this idea in your head that that\u2019s what life is, that the real greatness in life is those who have overcome suffering and all of this. Who says that? You know, we all have so many of these old sayings, conventional wisdom, wives\u2019 tales that imprison us. Why, with all that\u2019s out there to experience and to enjoy, to achieve and to accomplish, why sit out there and just surrender it to others? Who\u2019s to say it\u2019s not yours? Who\u2019s to say you have to sit there and just let whatever life dumps on you every day be what your life is? So when somebody is underemployed, they\u2019re choosing it. <\/line>Now, I know this sounds coldhearted and cruel and mean-spirited, but it\u2019s not. It\u2019s optimistic and motivational. If you\u2019re underemployed it means you think you\u2019re better than where you currently are. Well, if you think you\u2019re better than where you currently are, who\u2019s going to do something about it? You going to wait around for that to be recognized by somebody? Or are you going to go demo it for somebody? You can sit around and wait all day for people to realize what you want about you. It\u2019s not their job to do that. They\u2019re too worried about themselves and how you think of them. You\u2019ve got to take control of yourself. <\/line>You\u2019ve got to take control of your life, and you\u2019ve got to realize that you\u2019re the one that defines it, not anybody else. Not your mom, not your dad, not your sisters, not your grandparents. You define who you are, and you define your life, and you are the one that gets to set the rules as to how life is going to be enjoyed and how it\u2019s going to be pursued. And if you give up those rules to somebody else, then you are to blame for where you are if you don\u2019t like it. I know this is hard. I\u2019m here to tell you this is hard, because none of us are raised this way, and none of us are told this. We\u2019re all told the other. We\u2019re all told that people who are rich and doing things great are lucky, that it just was handed to them or that they\u2019re different, or that – forget rich – people that just appear to be happy to us, and if we\u2019re not? It\u2019s just the luck of the draw. <\/line>“I wish I were them. Gee, I can\u2019t be what they are, I wonder why. I don\u2019t come from the right part of town, don\u2019t know the right people” or what have you. That\u2019s not how it happens. And the odds are the people you think are happy probably aren\u2019t anyway, they\u2019re just covering up their own misery. So you get all trapped in this stuff, and you see other people happy and makes you miserable, you get mad at them! They have nothing to do with your misery, don\u2019t even know you and yet you\u2019re sitting there getting all unhappy about it. Life is to be lived. Life is to be grabbed onto. Life is to be defined by you, nobody else – including your parents. It\u2019s to be defined by you. If you let somebody else define it, and you sit around and be worried what other people think of you, then you\u2019re imprisoned by it. <\/line>END TRANSCRIPT<\/emphasize><\/strong><\/line><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: We live in an era where you\u2019re complaining about unemployment. You\u2019ve got eight kids that are employed, and you are whining about it. You know, you can call them statistics, but there are surveys of the American people, the happiness index is as high as it\u2019s been in who knows how long, particularly since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nYou Define Who You Are - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/01\/14\/you_define_who_you_are\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"You Define Who You Are - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: We live in an era where you\u2019re complaining about unemployment. 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