All of life has been a preparation for this moment

People who are sadly mistaken, think that nothing is related to any other.  So it comes as quite a shock to them, to learn that they may have had a hand in the outcome they are presently experiencing.  It might be as obvious as their poor health and condition.  What they did -- or didn't do -- is the reason they are in the shape they're in, and not that they had no part in it.  

It is safe to say, that those who are the happiest and most content, are those who think they are mostly responsible for their own fate and outcomes -- and therefore do something about it, rather than lamenting how unfair life has been to them, and given them nothing they deserve.  In all likelihood, they have gotten what they deserved -- and if they don't like it, it is  time to look into their own actions and their consequences, and see the error of their ways and understanding.

For this, they don't need to begin with a perfect understanding and mastery, as though such a thing were possible -- and easy.  They simply have to get better at what they are doing -- just a little bit each day, and of course, they have to start -- and not think of more excuses not to.  All the excuses in the world, are no substitute for the tiniest bit of action -- in making a difference.  That is especially true when asking why most people age badly, while only a few age well.  Those latter, are those who have bettered their understanding of life -- and what it takes to be successful at it.

Not just to be successful at all the trivial ways people may become distracted at -- but deeply engaged in their own lives, so that it makes a difference -- in everything they do.  It might be even what they don't do anymore -- realizing it is bad for them, and leads to disastrous results.    That would include competing with others, and even oneself -- incessantly, as though it were good and a wise thing to do.  The inevitable result is an unnecessary and avoidable injury -- that leads to a premature and permanent impairment and disability -- no matter how many blows one thinks they can absorb.  It doesn't make them better and more impervious to damage.

It obviously predisposes one to injury -- and with that, a loss of that exercise, articulation and expression -- as happens to so many thinking to retain the recklessness of their youth by indulging in it as long as they can -- until they can't.  That is textbook denial -- rather than an understanding and acceptance of its consequences -- before it is too late.

The signs along the way are obvious -- and obviously trying to tell one something important -- but one has to be listening, or it falls on deaf ears.  That's why it is so important to want to learn.  If a person is not disposed in that way, no amount of teaching is going to make a difference.  One will simply resist it all the more -- thinking that is the proper function of their role in life -- to resist the efforts of every other.  Such a person can never benefit from the efforts of others; they reflexively try to undermine and undo it.  That's what they've been conditioned to do all their lives.

And ultimately, the person they undermine most, is themselves -- because they cannot help themselves. That's the way they are -- and have no way of being otherwise.  Such persons are beyond help.  Shit happens, and there's nothing they -- or anybody else, can do about it!  That's just the way the world is -- according to their understanding.  

So thinking it does make a difference -- makes the biggest difference, which is understanding before any further effort is applied.  Lacking this proper understanding, makes all further effort arbitrary, futile and counterproductive.  Then once the understanding is valid, the effort naturally follows -- but never  does before then.  

So, many people's efforts seem to be in vain, and the belief that it can't make a difference, no matter what -- because they don't have this understanding leading to proper effort.  And there, they do not inquire further -- but accept their dismal fates, as what must be -- and many will agree with them, and encourage them along the way.  They say they wish it could be otherwise, but they do nothing to prevent it.  Nothing will change, as long as people keep doing what they've always done before.  That is the reason it happens.