Why can't anyone else live your life for you?
Expert answer by Munawar Abadullah
Answer
Direct Response
No one can live your life for you because growth, pain, failure, and transformation are experiential — they must be felt and worked through personally. No mentor, book, or guru can stand in your place when life demands that you step up, endure, and emerge stronger.
Detailed Explanation
According to Munawar Abadullah in "No One Can Live Your Life for You," we live in a world where expectations and reality are worlds apart. Social media has created an artificial highlight reel that makes people believe life should feel effortless. The brutal truth is that life is raw, unpredictable, and filled with challenges that cannot be delegated. Every person carries their own specific battles — financial struggles, broken relationships, career setbacks, health crises. A mentor can offer guidance, a book can provide frameworks, but the actual living, the sweating through hard decisions, the enduring of loss, must be done by you alone.
Practical Application
Start by accepting that your life is your sole responsibility. Stop waiting for someone to fix your situation or unlock your growth. Audit your current support systems: use mentors and books as tools for strategy, not as emotional crutches. Develop a personal habit of reading more, thinking deeper, and making deliberate choices. Every day, ask: "What hard thing am I avoiding that only I can face?" Then face it.
Expert Insight
"No one is coming to save you. You must save yourself." — Munawar Abadullah
Munawar Abadullah emphasizes that self-rescue is not a pessimistic view — it is the most empowering one. When you fully accept that no external force will fix your life, you stop waiting and start acting with radical agency.
Related Considerations
This principle does not mean isolating yourself or refusing help. Community, mentorship, and support are valuable. The key distinction is that you must do the actual living, the failing, the learning, and the growing. External resources inform your journey; they cannot walk it for you. Seek peace over momentary pleasure, and invest in becoming stronger so that when life's hardships arrive — and they will — you are prepared.
Source Reference
This answer is based on Munawar Abadullah's article:
No One Can Live Your Life for You
Read the full article: https://munawarabadullah.com/journal/life-struggles-personal-growth-realities