<p>That is all good if you believe that we don't ever have the ability to transcend a situation in our mind and simply make new choices (whether they are "bad" or not is not the point, but simply the fact that you were able to make choices outside of the influence generated by the environment).</p>
<p>Of course you can't immediately jump from poor to wealthy or unmotivated to motivated. However, to better illustrate what I am trying to say, I will present a personal example...</p>
<p>I was totally unmotivated in early high school. I blamed it on my environment. I was getting many C's and D's and even F's in some report cards. With a divorced family, no goals to strive for in life, lack of hobbies, lack of character, lack of friends, and siblings and other people in school putting you down constantly, you can bet that I became pretty unmotivated about school. Later on, I ran away from home and this event turned around my life forever.</p>
<p>When I came back, however, I realized that I could make many new choices. I decided<a href="and%20made%20a%20commitment">/i</a> to limit my time on the video games, I *decided to join DECA and other clubs in school, I decided to start a new hobby of making websites instead of browsing the Internet aimlessly, I decided to try and be more open minded, and I decided that suicide or running away is never an option. Because of these commitments I made, I am no longer the unmotivated and depressed person I was before. Yes, it took a long time, but now I am no longer that kind of person. And that was because I became responsible for myself. I was already starting to notice changes. Almost all A's on the report cards, a couple of new friends that I am still keeping in touch with even now, less people "picking" on me, found some goals to strive for in life, and blah blah blah so on.</p>
<p>I hate to talk about myself so much, but I figured it would be the best example to give you. I hope you understand what I am trying to explain here. This is all, of course, in light of how many students in school blame their depression or lack of motivation on outside factors that seem "deterministic" to them.</p>
<p>I remember an example question that was given in a class last semester: if a poor person who was unaware or careless of the dangers of the drug scene was given the choice to either sell drugs and get lots of money or go work at McDonalds for minimum wage, which would they likely choose? Most might choose the first, right? If they did, then they chose that out of ignorance. And ignorance, to me, is the refusal of acknowledgement. I am not saying that they are an ignorant person overall. However, since they did not take the time to even do some research of any kind to examine the drug scene and the risks involved, then how can they blame what happens to them on anything else other then themselves?</p>
<p>And suppose they did do some research of some kind. In that case, they ought to realize that what happens to them is indeed their own fault for making the choice to enter the drug scene in the first place anyway.</p>
<p>I wrote a 7 page paper on this sort of topic one time, but it's very philosophical and hard for a lot of people to understand unless they have read certain philosophers. Otherwise, I would've summarized what I said in that which really shows what I am trying to convey to you.</p>