Posts by Pat:
Want to change someone?
Have you ever wished/ prayed/exhorted/ pleaded for someone to change? “If only he would get a job.” “If only she would start exercising.” “If only they would let me help them change.”
But what if we would only let the people around us be who they are and love them unconditionally like we often say we do!
Yes, I know we only want them to change or realize their potential because we think they will be happier, more productive and achieve greater fulfillment.
We may couch our need to change others with such reasons. But more often than not, we find that the actions (or lack of actions) of the people closest to us are embarrassing, infuriating or just unacceptable to our better judgement.
After all we want the best for them, don’t we? And we just happen to think we know what the best should be.
If we see someone about to be hit by a car, we should probably intervene. Seems like the right thing to do. But if they want to keep smoking, eat unhealthy and fattening food, or stay in a relationship that’s going nowhere, what business is it of ours?
Could it be that if we’re busy fixing others then our time is too occupied to take care of our own lives? Remember that saying “why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?”
What if, instead of trying to change others into what we think they should be, we live the life WE were meant to live and be an example for others to consider for themselves?
Folks don’t want to hear a sermon. So what if we stopped preaching/nagging/reminding/bugging our loved ones and friends about how they should change?
What if we were willing to just be a great example? To be the change we wish to see?
Just a reminder to myself! (and maybe you too?)
Things aren’t always what they seem…
A story is told… Two traveling angels stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family. The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the guest room. Instead the angels were given a space in the cold basement. As they made their bed on the hard floor, the […]
Ask a different question
Sometimes we can find a breakthrough by examining our problem from a different angle…by posing a new question. Consider this past challenge that took place at a Houston airport. Management asked passengers to share their biggest complaint, and the overwhelming response was the wait time for luggage at the baggage carousels, sometimes 30 minutes. So […]
Feel handicapped, do you?
Do you feel handicapped in some way? Too old? Too young? Too short? Physically limited? Mentally short-changed? What about an elderly Grandma Moses who started painting in her 70’s? What about Greta Thundy, the 15 year old who is the face of the climate change issue? What about being born with no arms or legs […]
Diagnosis vs. Prognosis
Believe one, but question the other! I just finished reading Scott Adams’ (creator of the Dilbert cartoons) book, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. He was once diagnosed with an incurable hand condition that would have forced him to stop creating Dilbert cartoons. Literally NO ONE had EVER cured themselves of […]
Wordy, are you?
How many words do you speak each day? Ten thousand? Twenty? Thirty? A quick Google search puts the average across both sexes at between fifteen and sixteen thousand words a day. If you accept these numbers, that means we speak close to 500,000 words a month and nearly 6,000,000 a year. That’s a lot of […]
The Ikea Effect
It’s named after a Swedish company that makes cheaply constructed furniture components and sells them in pieces, along with wordless cartoon instructions for assembly, packaged with a mixed bag of hardware, often including several wrong pieces and usually missing one critical component. (Has that ever been your experience?) In real estate “The Ikea Effect” is […]
One piece at a time…
How do we solve a jigsaw puzzle? We start with one piece at a time, and each one makes adding the next piece a little easier until we complete the puzzle. Puzzles have a lot of components just like our lives. It is hard to focus on everything at once-relationships, personal development, work, school, and […]
What we can’t see…
Just because we can’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Our breath exists, keeping us alive, even though we can’t see it. The wind exists, too, but we only know this because we feel it on our skin and hear it moving the leaves on the trees. All around us and within us are […]
4 wimpy words!
Most of us will agree that words have power-the power to inspire, the power to hurt, the power to compel, the power to enrage. And I think we would agree that some words are wimpy! Try: Try implies failure. If you say, “I’ll try to call you tomorrow,” the person hears “I’ll call you tomorrow.” […]