Existentialiam, the most practical philosophical approach of the past two centuries, offers a simple plan for living. The message of existentialism is that every one of us is responsible for our behavior and for how we deal with the situations in our lives. Exisentialism is the philosophy of “no excuses.”

Life may be unfair. Life may be difficult. Life may be tragic. We may feel ignored, unimportant, neglected, insignificant. We, nevertheless, are responsible for making the most out of life’s challenges. We cannot blame our God, our boss, our associates, our wife, or our parents. We must play the hand we have been dealt the best we know how.

We must decide what to do with those situations life has given us–whether to fight them, flee from them, or go with the flow, whether to modify them or transcend them. We are in charge of our response to the situations in our lives. We alone are responsible for our happiness and ourselves.