Any damage that's been done, you have to fix yourself because it needs fixing and there is nobody else to do the work. Blame may well be justified, but it's not going to move you forward in your life.
Interpretation
You are responsible for your own healing and progress, regardless of past damage.
Augusten Burroughs emphasizes the importance of personal accountability in overcoming challenges and healing from past wounds. While it may be easy to assign blame for difficulties and damage in life, clinging to blame will hinder personal growth. Taking ownership of one's circumstances and actively seeking to address and fix those issues is essential for true progress and moving forward in life.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming obstacles, you might say, 'As Augusten Burroughs reminds us, any damage done is something we must face and fix ourselves.'
This is how you survive the unsurvivable, this is how you lose that which you cannot bear to lose, this is how you reinvent yourself, overcome your abusers, fulfill your ambitions and meet the love of your life: by following what is true, no matter where it leads you.
The truth is humbling, terrifying, and often exhilarating. It blows the doors off the hinges and fills the world with fresh air.
Some damage is too severe, some harm endures. And what you have to do is accept it. And by accept it I mean, don’t be the paralyzed person in the bed who is waiting to walk again. Realize, it’s never gonna happen. And find some other way to get around –swing from a vine, get a Mad Max wheelchair. Anything but…wait.
But then, look at me. My brain is incorrectly formed, and I'm shaped like a tube. Plus, I'm an alcoholic, a "survivor" of childhood sexual abuse, was raised in a cult and have no education. So, really, if you think about it, the only thing that separates me from the guy with the stinky foot and no teeth is a book deal and some cologne.
I think part of the reason I'm attracted to Foster is because he's such a mess. I mean, the people I have loved in my life have never been easy to love. I'm not used to normal. I'm used to disaster. I don't know, as messed up as he is, he's also sort of exciting, sort of a challenge. I'm accustomed to working for love.
Time moves only forward, never back. We look forward to a moment and then it arrives and an instant later it is gone. Like something on the surface of a river that we reached for but did not touch in time and it carried on, away. You cannot be a prisoner of your past against your will. Because you can only live in the past inside your mind.
Don't wait till you're older, or in some better job than you have now. Don't wait for anything. Don't wait till some magical...idea drops into your lap. That's not where ideas come from. Go looking for an idea and it'll show up. Begin now.
God planted a dream in your heart for a reason. No one else can dream it for you. No one else will accomplish it for you.
Don't be afraid. Don't be daunted. Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it, whatever that might be.
the harder the conflict, the greater the triumph.
You don't have to be serious all the time to do a good job.
Start at the end and work back.
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