Awareness and Judgements

Quote (paraphrased)
"All people seek only what they perceive as the good, however due to the limitations of perception people can not tell what is always the best option".
-Socrates

My Thoughts
This quote is evidenced by the statement "Well, it seemed like a great idea at the time.".

Most people believe that their view of the world is the right one. It can be frightening to accept the fact that perhaps opening your mind to new possibilities may be a good idea. I think all of us at one time or another have pushed our world view, or perception, onto others. This frequently shows up in relationships and leads to many disagreements and arguments.

Another area this can be easily seen is amongst those people that have lived as foreigners in a country.
I am sure many of you have heard, or said, things like:
I don't understand why -insert their nationality here- do things this way.
Obviously, in -insert your country here- the way we do it is much, much better.
If they would do it our way, everything would work better.
But would it?

I know this may be very hard to believe, but everyone is always trying to do their best.
For example: One generation works 80 hours a week to provide for their family.
They struggle and struggle to get by.
The next generation looks at them and thinks: I don't understand, if they would have done this or that they could have cut their hours, made more money, and enjoyed life more.
Both of these generations are simply acting out of their level of awareness.

You see we all have our own challenges, situations, obstacles, and regrets to deal with and overcome in life. Life is about learning, or not learning, from these experiences.
It is not up to us to sit around and judge everyone.

By letting go of judgments, you can seriously enhance your own personal awareness.
How can you start to let go of these judgments?
You can start by realizing that it is absolutely impossible for you to know what is going on in other people's minds all of the time.
By accepting this as true, you will start to break up the cycle of "I am right" and "they are wrong".
You can also start asking yourself perception based questions like:
"What is another way of looking at this?"
"What if I looked at this from a different point of view?"
If you practice this daily, over time it will become a habit.
You will then find it comfortable simply not knowing why someone would do something that you perceive as "wrong" or "bad".
Remember, maybe that "bad" choice was necessary for their growth.

Until next time...

Decision and Action

Quote
“Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work.”
- H.L. Hunt

My Thoughts
It can be very difficult to make decisions, but it's even tougher to take action on those decisions.
We have all heard many people say things like:
I'll get to work on this new business plan.
I'll start going to the gym this week.
I'll practice for this important interview.
etc...

The interesting thing is how many people never follow through. There are numerous reasons for this, however I believe the biggest reason is simply that they don't want it strong enough. There is no emotion in back of what they are doing, or not a big enough why.

If you find yourself struggling with some task, ask yourself things like:
Why am I doing this?
Is this what I really want?
What will be the outcome if I complete this?
How will I feel once I finish this?

If you find yourself coming up with negative responses to those questions, perhaps it's time to reevaluate your situation. Maybe it's time to make a decision to change something.
After deciding it's time for change the next step is you need to act.
Don't wait long before acting, or you will find yourself in a cycle of self doubt.
Once this cycle occurs it is very difficult to overcome.
Remember, if you really want to change something in your life, DECIDE to do it and then ACT.

Until next time...

Failure

Quote
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
-Winston Churchill

My Thoughts
I am sure most of you know that life doesn’t always work out as you planned. No matter how much we would like to be able to control everything, it just doesn’t work like that.

So, what do you do if you set a goal(s) and you fail?
What do you do when nothing seems to be working?

Well, first recognize that it’s not failure until you ultimately decide to give up completely.
Second, accept the fact that you will have setbacks along the way. Some of these setbacks will appear major at the time. Remember that you can learn something from these. These are life’s lessons. If nothing seems to be working you don’t have to change the goal, but maybe it’s time you change your approach to the goal. Perhaps there are other paths that you haven’t explored yet.

Finally, always remember even though you can’t always control life you can control your attitude towards life.

Until next time...