I was walking into a store with a friend and I saw cup on the ground. I picked it up and threw it in the trash.

She asked me, “Why did you throw that cup in the trash?”

I said, “I was about to step over it so I decided to just throw it in the trash.”

She then says to me, “I don’t know why you’d do that…that’s someone else’s job.”

On the surface level, she’s right. It is someone else’s job. But it was right there and the trash wasn’t too far away, so I just did it.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t go around picking up trash all the time…in fact, I don’t ever go out of my to do it. If I have to step two or three strides outside of the path I’m on, I most likely won’t do it. But if it’s convenient, I will.

One of my intentions is to live in a healthy (clean) world. So picking up a cup off the ground will help make that a reality. There was a kid coming out of the store when I picked the cup up…maybe he saw me and ‘learned’ that keeping your environment clean is a good thing to do.

Who knows…

Anyway, this made me think about another conversation I had a few weeks ago when someone said something very similar. We were talking about something that was indirectly affecting him and when I asked him about it, his comment was, “someone will fix it.”

I think we sometimes live our lives like this… thinking that ‘someone else’ will solve our problems. Whether it’s the government, parents, bosses, etc… this is the epitome of living (un)responsibly…meaning not taking responsibility for your life.

You may be thinking, “hey, it’s just a cup…”

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – how you do anything is usually how you do everything.

Yes it is just a cup, yes it is someone else’s job, but what’s your role in the world you’re creating for yourself? Leaving it up to other people to do things for you or make decisions for you is giving up the most powerful asset you have…the ability to create.

What are you waiting for someone else to do for you?