Do you take vitamins? Feel them working?

Well, any added benefit from a calcium or iron supplement might be in your head.

The blog FiveThirtyEight reports on surprising new data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The survey finds it’s hard to tell the value of vitamins if we already live relatively healthy lifestyles.

Emily Oster, a business professor at the University of Chicago who wrote the piece for FiveThirtyEight, lays it on us:

“The truth is that for most people, vitamin supplementation is simply a waste of time.”

I suppose it’s wishful thinking to believe a bottle of pills is the answer. How we eat, drink, sleep and exercise ultimately decide our health.

Yep, success depends on us and what’s on the inside.

Same goes for your career. If you wait on other people to bring you good fortune…you’ll be waiting a while.

8 Reasons Why the Only Person You Can Truly Rely on is You

1. You have everything you need to be successful.

Drive, desire, passion, grit. You have all the tools right now to leave your mark.

Any support from the outside will help but how far you go? Up to you.

2. People will care about your world but only to a point.

We all lead busy lives. Friends, family and coworkers will listen to your problems, but they won’t solve them. They can’t.

Plus, they have their own stuff to deal with.

3. A helping hand will only carry you so far.

If you want to network, write an email like this and go for it. The person might even send an email to connect you with someone else. That’s huge.

But then it’s on you to follow through, set a meeting with the new person and do whatever it takes to land the job or earn the business.

4. The older you become, the less people check on you.

“Make sure you finish your work.”

…said no one ever to a person over 22 years old.

The further you plunge into the real world, the more people assume you can handle yourself. Because you need to.

5. You’re the best person you know when the going gets tough. 

Those days when it feels like you’re going nowhere in a hurry…you’re the only one who can research networking groups, find the right place, meet new people and create opportunities from scratch.

You’re pretty resilient. You know that?

[quote]You’re the best person you know when the going gets tough.[/quote]

6. If you want it done, then do it.

It’s nice to delegate responsibility and ease the workload. But when you do the job, you know exactly when it will be completed.

And remember “I’ll do it“: the one sentence that makes anyone a leader.

7. Bloggers will dispense advice all day long, but you’re one who must apply it.

I want you to succeed, but it’s out of my hands.

What you do with these words — or any bit of insight on the web — is 100% your call. That’s not daunting; it’s liberating.

You have total control.

8. You have more potential than anyone you know.

The real world might feel like a big competition, but there’s only one person you need to defeat.

Yourself.

Every day, a bit better. Every year, a bit further.

It’s you and the mirror.

What’s it gonna be?

How did you push through when you need a lift?

Share below!

Featured photo: Steven Depolo (Flickr)