History is the Judge

“Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.” - Winston Churchill

A few years ago I took a trip to visit the Chickamauga National Military Park in the state of Georgia. It is a somewhat forgotten piece of American Civil War history. Taking the tour of the battle fields and listening to what happened among the trees of those north Georgia hills is truly amazing. It was the last major battle that the southern Confederate forces won during our Civil War in the 1860s.

As you listen, you hear stories of courage and determination from both the northern and southern forces. The men that fought those battles died with valor for a cause that each believed in. The generals and politicians each had opposing views of what was right and just for our country.

Those differences are similar to current events and many of the same arguments can be seen. Historians still judge the events from past wars such as our own Civil War. And history will be the judge of our present day conflicts and disagreements. What we do though is continue to move forward with the decisions we make and try to learn from that history.

Your own life is a reflection of the decisions you make. Those decisions will be influenced by your own history and perception of events. Study and learn from your historical experience. You will grow and improve your life if you do.

Stay inspired my friends!

Judge Yourself

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” Carl Gustav Jung

If you read that quote carefully, you begin to understand that being judgmental of others says more about ourselves than it does of the person we are judging. I have heard it said that "People provide behavioral models for each other all the time. It is one of the main ways in which we learn things. Every time we see a behavioral model that we don't deem worthy of emulating, such as someone we find irritating, it narrows the selection process for the behaviors that we want to emulate."

What is hard to reconcile many times is that many of the things we find irritating are those things that remind us of our own flaws. Many of the people who seem constantly irritated by most everything are more times than not basically unhappy with themselves. These same people will try to deceive themselves into thinking that its everyone else's fault. All they are attempting to do is block the insight into their own lives that may help them solve their problems.

And that can be very sad to watch someone go through.

All of us have tendencies that make us wish we were or had something else. It could be the physical beauty of a super model, or a great athlete. Whatever that 'thing' is, we will tend to find irritating that which we currently are not. What we need to do instead is find comfort in who we currently are. When we find happiness in who we are (good, bad, whatever) is when we can move on to a more productive life.

Find that person inside of you, the good, the bad and work on who you are first. You can't change others, your judgement of them doesn't change you either. Find out what it is about yourself that you want to change and change it. Easier said then done you are saying, but only you can do it.

Find yourself first, find judgement in who you are.

Stay inspired my friends.