Throwing Bricks

"A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him." - David Brinkley

I guess in reality you are not walking down the street with people throwing bricks at you. It can certainly feel like it at times. The odd thing is that it also feels like you are picking up those same bricks to carry.

Think of it as a "double-whammy" in that you are being pelted with bricks and picking them up to carry away. You could say it is similar to a wagon full of rocks. An ever increasing load you allow others to put upon your life.

The weight and size of this load slows your progress and eventually break you down. It is a terrible thing to see a load of brick or rock come tumbling down upon someone's life. When it happens, there are only two possible results; complete destruction of the persons life or fighting renewal.

I have seen the destruction in people's lives. The kind in which they never recover and no matter how much you want; they are buried forever. It is a heart breaking process to watch but one that I learned from. No matter how heavy or burdensome, there is hope and possibility as long as life exists within you.

Start laying the bricks down, stop shouldering them and let them lift you. The foundation you build can serve a couple of purposes. One is to give you greater footing and raise you above the soft ground. A foundation that creates a means for you to reach greater heights.

These same bricks can be used to build a path for others to follow. A path that serves as an example to your spouse, your children, your friends, or others that are watching. Because the choices we make, the decisions on how we respond are being watched. Other people are learning by seeing how you respond and the path you lay for them will be everlasting.

Are you going to leave a pile of bricks or a nice brick path behind?

Stay inspired my friends!

The Worry List

"If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying?" -Shantideva

Each of us have a list of worries that kept neatly packed away in our mind. The list can tend to be so long that it overshadows our dream list.

We take a cursory look at the dream list but spend countless hours going over and over the worry list. We spend more time concerned with that list then we do actually trying to solve them. If we were to take an honest look, many are not worries at all.

What we would find is that the list is full of excuses. They are stones building up in our mind's wagon. We pull this around allowing it to cause pain and struggle. The weight of it all simply burdens us as we pursue our dreams.

Think of how much faster, how much easier, how much more successful we would be in reaching our dreams without the worry. If we let it go, tore up the list, emptied the wagon of stones; the journey would be so much easier.

At the very least, we would have more focus directed on dreams then on worries. And that is the lesson to be learned. Do not spend all of your time in worry. Spend that time focused on your dreams.