Argument Resolved

"Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level, then best you with experience." -Dilbert

There will be those that think the above quote is a harsh statement. Yet we allow ourselves to be pulled into that argument so many times. It causes us to lose ground on what we have achieved when we enter into an argument with our own selves. We struggle to some level of success in life. And than as we try to move even further, we allow the past to pull us back.

One way of looking at this would be to consider the idea of doing something new in your life. You sit and evaluate your past experiences. We do this in order to learn and understand what we have done previously. We will take those past experiences and look at them in two different ways;

1. The things we can change to be successful next time.
2. The things that discourage us from ever trying again.

During this backward look at experiences, they can be positive and supportive in our new efforts to succeed. But then we allow the 'idiot' voice to creep into the argument. This voice is our negative experience which always seems to have a louder voice. And so begins the argument with oneself and the 'idiot' inside draws us down to that level. That voice is saying you will never be successful, or will never do better. Suddenly the voice has won and talked us out of even trying.

Drown out the 'idiot' voice and give center stage to your voice that encourages.

There is a voice inside each of us that encourages and one which teaches you lessons that will give rise to success. It all starts with believing in oneself, in letting the 'smart'voice win the argument inside. Believe in yourself and let the 'idiot'inside go argue with someone else.

Stay inspired my friends!

Get Up and Go

"Time is really the only capital that any human being has and the thing that he can least afford to waste or lose. " -Thomas Edison

Do you waste your time on things that are not productive to your life or others? If so, this is a call for you to get up, do something and not just sit around wishing things were different.

If you sit and do nothing, you will achieve nothing but waste a life time.

When you get up and make a move, your life will begin down a path of living a great life, great achievement and establishing great memories for those you leave behind. As a character in a book by Stephen King (Shawshank Redemption) says, "get busy living or get busy dying."

You can sit and live out your life watching it wash away from you. Or you can begin doing something to live your life before it is over. When you make the move to do something, not everything will go as planned but you will learn, experience and grow. The act of failure is merely a step towards new experiences.

You keep going, you keep trying, you keep living.

Time has a different finite point for each of us. None of us know when that end point will occur. So get busy living it, don't waste a minute of it, live a great life.

Stay inspired my friends.

Keep the Desire

"The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn't matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark." -Barbara Hall

Reading the quote above, it makes me wonder why people lose this desire and positive outlook on their future? Is it when they do get lost and have to turn back, they lose the confidence to keep trying? Or do they encounters others that are negative and get dragged down to a more negative view of life?

Don't let it happen - fight it - work at keeping the desire.

Keeping yourself in a positive frame of mind is difficult. You have to work at maintaining your excitement. You also have to help others and keep yourself among others with great attitudes. Life will have its share of disappointment.

The goal is to keep moving towards that success.

Keep believing, remain positive, stay in the company of others that lift -- the above ideal can be maintained. Always remember that it does not matter which road you take, but that you do take a road. Movement causes change, embrace it and life will be great.

Stay inspired my friends!

No More Rocks

"The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks." -Tennessee Williams

I have written before that there are people who will try to place their rocks into your wagon. They do this instead of building their own path. These rocks they 'serve up' to you are intended to bring you down to their pain or misery. They are emptying to unload their own troubles into your life.

Think of an encounter at the grocery store, a technical support line or any other number of daily connections. Is the other person really trying to help you? Or by their words and actions, are they handing you their rocks?

Through the years I have been able to listen to different folks from check out lanes to numerous customer assistance support phone calls. In nearly every case, you can tell by the tone of their voice or interest level how their day and sometimes life is going.

This is not a big new revelation I have come up with.

It is age old and most anyone, including yourself can sense these things. All of us deal in customer service in one form or another. We serve customers that are either really business customers, our boss, our community, or our family. Most every thing we do involves service to others in one form or another. In those moments, do you sometimes have other things on your mind.

Do you vaguely try to toss a few stones into some else's wagon?

I am sure there are people that can explain the psychological aspects of how and why people do this. My simplistic version is that people just like to unload their issues (rocks) on other people. In doing so, they hope it will make their life better. But I see it as these people attempting to drag you down to their attitude level.

Dragging you down to their level is much easier than trying to lift themselves.

Try it some time, listen to how the other person is talking. Is the tone of their language effecting your own attitude? Is it depressing, angering or just making you feel lousy? If so, STOP...remember the first rule? You control your own attitude. As Elbert Hubbard, an American philosopher and writer said, "The happiness of this life depends less on what befalls you than the way in which you take it."

Also remember that you can impact the other persons life as well.

Your responses and how you react to another person transcends not only the encounter but the next encounter both people will have. Maybe not in a big impactful way but in small ripples that move out from this one exchange. It is these small ripples which have a big impact eventually.

Do not allow yourself to carry the rocks of another person. Help them unload the rocks to build a new path. No one needs to be carrying a bunch of rocks around if they do not want to. The road to where we want to be can be paved with those rocks instead of struggling to carry them through the dirt and mud.

Unload your wagon, not onto someone else but create a new path on which to travel. And as always, stay inspired my friends!