A person is both a series of decisions as well as a series of consequences. Half choice, half outcome. Neither is fixed. When one choice is made, it is infinitely intertwined with a world of other possibilities and decisions, in that moment and as a result of that moment. The mere physical manifestation of the Space-Time-Mind continuum alone yields outcomes through simply existing. An evolution of continuous changes of the human body down to the smallest of particles.While the life experience cannot be controlled completely by the efforts of physical or mental manipulation, it can be affected through influence. The influence derives from a specific combination of decisions. And in its most prime, a decision begins as a thought that grows into an idea, then motivates to promote action.
Is this automatic? Or does self-awareness play a role? Or is it both depending on who is being talked about?
It would most likely depend on the person. It comes down to those that take full responsibility for themselves and those who don't. To consider the notion of Nature v. Nurture on the effects of a personality, at the point that one chooses to be responsible for himself is when the debate seizes to matter.
Subjectively good and bad situations happen to everyone regardless of age, gender, race, financial status or wishful thinking. However, as far as life direction goes, continued results depend on the reactions of the individual. No one's entire life is entirely based on circumstance. These situations are only check points, not destinations. They are challenges meant to be overcome, never places of exile.
How does one take responsibility for himself?
It has to be an option. The person has to believe that it's a possibility. If not, the person's capabilities will never align with what it takes to get there. Or in this case, the person doesn't really understand what he is possible of achieving.
A person must be willing to commit to the idea, whether or not he agrees, that there is a potential that he cannot think up in his limited consciousness. A potential personality that has evolved as a result of choice and consequence previously enacted, in a moment that is unknown to him presently. This is the consideration of maybe. To accept the fact that we are prisoners of our own ignorance. That there is so much more knowledge and possibility that exists outside our scope of conscious awareness. Outside of what we can consciously create or think.
Perhaps ignorance is the culprit when it comes to unrealized potential. The forgotten idea that people can manifest into something that they aren't presently. For anything to actually be possible, its idea must be possible first. It has to be a viable option to the intellect. If one doesn't know that something is possible, he could spend the rest of his life believing that he is solely a product of his environment. Stuck in position by the Wheel of Fortune when the only thing that is stuck is his mind, closed and blind.
Once a possibility is only considered, it opens up an entire floodgate of fresh ideas and opportunities. It is like a light turns on in a hidden room of the mind. Knowledge from true enlightenement is transcedental to personal belief. Always. And it begins with:
...maybe?...
