A Catalyst Alone is Not Enough

In chemistry, a catalyst is a substance that increases that rate at which a chemical reaction takes place. In our day-to-day lives (aside from the chemical reactions taking place in our bodies and all around us), a catalyst can also be a person, thing, or event that causes us to take action or change ourselves. Some can be negative, such as financial hard times or deaths of people close to us, while others can be positive, like reading a motivational book (or blog post by yours truly), or meeting a successful person that you want to emulate, and others still may be neutral (or could ebb towards positive and negative depending on one's perspective) such as religion or the goals that we set. A any rate, catalysts light fires under our asses to make changes in our lives that we deem necessary to advance.

Once you have found your catalyst (or it has found you) and the fire has been lit, do not think that your life is in the bag. It is going to be up to you to kindle the fire into an inferno of self-improvement and development. There are many people that satiate themselves in self-help material or prayer, then wonder why their lives are not improving at all. This can be due to "paralysis by analysis", fear, downright laziness, or other causes, but if this behavior persists, one will find themselves right back in another rut.

 A catalyst on its own will not cause a chemical reaction; reactants are needed. In the case of your personal development, the "reactants" will be your passions, your goals, your visions, your skills, your work, and any other factor that will contribute to your success. These aspects must be cultivated and put in motion in order to find success since it will not fall out of the sky for most people, despite how many self-help books you have read, or prayers you have sent up to GodJesus, the Bear, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or my personal favorite: