Let’s talk about ownership. Not ownership of houses, cars, or material possessions, but ownership of something far more precious—your life.

The question of who owns your life is profound. It’s vastly more significant than who owns your material possessions, because whoever owns your life, owns you. And whoever owns you controls not just your present reality, but your future potential.

When you don’t own your life, you don’t live in your reality. You become a slave within your own story, trapped in an interpretation of who you truly are. You find yourself hurtling towards a future that was never meant for you—someone else’s version of who you are and the life you’re supposed to lead.

Without ownership of your life, your paths, choices, and opportunities are shaped by others. Existing this way inevitably ends poorly, because you weren’t designed to navigate the world as a mere interpretation of your authentic self.

When you don’t own your life, life happens to you rather than through you. But as William Ernest Henley wrote in his poem “Invictus”, it shouldn’t be that way because “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”

Those words carry transformative power.

You are the master of your fate. You are the captain of your soul. Hold onto this truth, and resolve to reclaim your life, becoming both master and captain of your journey ahead.

“That’s all well and good,” you might say, “but I’m trapped, and it’s not my fault. I had no choice. Others forced me onto this path. I’m not responsible.”

I get it, when you feel trapped in a life that doesn’t feel like yourown, it’s nice to blame someone else for your predicament. But you are responsible. You did have a choice, even if it didn’t feel like one. You chose to allow someone else to own your life.

But just as giving up ownership was a choice, so is taking it back—a choice only you can make.

So make that choice. Choose to reclaim your life, take back ownership and become who you were meant to be. Choose to become the real you.

But, before you make that choice, understand this: there is a cost to reclaiming ownership. That cost is acceptance—acceptance of your current situation’s reality.

You cannot change what you don’t acknowledge and accept. While your present reality may be merely a shadow of your authentic life, to move beyond it you must first accept where you are. If you hide from your present reality—if you deny it—you will forever remain enslaved in your own story.

But when you accept and acknowledge your current circumstances, you declare that all is not as it should be. You announce that change is coming, and you declare war on everything standing between you and your authentic life.

In that moment, you reclaim ownership. You become the master of your fate, the captain of your soul. You become the hero you were always meant to be—the architect of your real life.

So, who owns your life? Do you? Or have you placed ownership of your present and future in someone else’s hands?

The answer matters, because your authentic life literally depends on it.

How do you find out? Begin by understanding who the real you is, then examine the gap between your current self and your authentic self.

Once you understand the size and nature of this gap, identify who or what created it—the people, places and situations that have pulled you away from your true self.

Then go to work. Begin stripping away the interpretation of you, replacing that void with your authentic self.

It sounds straightforward, doesn’t it? And that’s because it is. But it’s not easy. Building the real you takes time, courage and focus.

The journey to reclaiming ownership of your life may be challenging, but it’s the most important journey you’ll ever undertake. After all, it’s the journey to becoming who you were always meant to be.