Friday, February 19, 2016

You May Not Be Ready Yet For The Things You Want Most.

Every single one of us have things that we want in this life. Some of the things that we desire the most can be viewed as being superficial, and they're often confused for being needs rather than wants. Then on the flip side, there are things in this life that we want that are essential to maintaining ourselves. This viewpoint varies from each person, and whatever your outlook may be on what things are considered wants and needs in life, we as people will always have a burning desire to chase after the things we want most. While I'm a firm believer in passionately going after the things that we want most in life, I also believe that the right timing and circumstances play an important factor when it comes to getting the things we want. Even if we obtain or achieve some of the things that we want most, it likely won't last or be as effective if the timing isn't right. All of this brings me to the topic that I want to talk about for a bit today. While there may be things that you're pursuing and desiring in this life, you may not always be ready to have those things just yet.

What's going on my people? Happy Friday to you all, and welcome again to another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'. I hope this reaches everyone in good health and spirits, as well as a positive state of mind. The year 2016 is still young but man, doesn't it feel like the month of February is flying on by? I know we have to keep in mind that February is a short month, however, it doesn't change the fact that this year seems to be speeding forward. At any rate, I hope everyone is doing well. So what's been up since I last wrote? For one, the Super Bowl has come and gone. I know that many people thought it was a boring game, but I myself personally enjoyed it. It was a very defensive game, which didn't make for a lot of excitement. However, I'm one of those people that can appreciate a good smash mouth game where the quarterbacks struggle from time to time. I was off with my pick of the Carolina Panthers winning, but hey that's why they play the game. Any team can rise up on any given Sunday right? I also want to send congrats to the Denver Broncos. Also, if any of you read the last post before this one, I mentioned that I will be doing a 5K race next Saturday (Feb. 27). The race is the Kinsel Ford 5K, which is actually the first race that I ever ran in. This will be my fifth time participating, and I'm definitely pumped! This paragraph is getting a bit too long, so I'll definitely be talking more about the post race in the next upcoming post. Alright then peeps, lets get into this topic of why you may not be ready for the things you want the most.

So we're back again for the fourth blog entry for 2016. Like I always mention in my posts, a person's individual viewpoint on a topic will always vary. My goal here isn't to focus on what is right or wrong, but rather using this platform as an outlet to express my opinions. Through that process of expressing my opinions, the hope is to leave anyone that reads these entries with something to think about and consider more. Now as I stated earlier, we all have things that we want in our lives, and we often confuse wants for being needs. Since I believe that needs and wants are two different things, I'm going to focus more on the wants compared to the needs in this post. Again, the things that those of you reading this may view as needs and wants may be different from my perspective on it. For me personally when I think of wants, I think of things like winning the lotto, getting that attractive girl (or guy if you're a female) that you desire, or owning a nice house, etc. In my opinion, these are examples of things that we may want, but they're not things that we always necessarily need. What else do these things have in common you may wonder? Besides potentially being costly to have, they all require having a great deal of maturity to properly maintain.

For most of us, especially when we're young adults, we often desire to more or less keep up with the Jones's. In some of those cases, we often look at others such as our peers and what they have or are achieving, and then we use that as a standard for our own lives. Going back to the wants and needs sub topic, I honestly feel that viewing our peers successes and achievements for our own lives is one of the reasons why many of us confuse wants and needs. If you're one of these people, and we all are at times, you're pretty much living vicariously through others. Just because maybe your classmate, family member or friend has achieved certain things, it doesn't always mean that you're mentally ready for those things as well. See, most people desire things that are almost counterproductive to their own lives. When you look at other people obtaining certain things that you may desire and see that these people are apparently enjoying having these things, it can give you the illusion you that need these things as well. Again, a person's level of readiness and maturity varies, so while it may appear to you that you're ready to take on certain things in life, that may not be the case if you're basing your preparedness off of someone else's life. This isn't always the wise way of thinking in my opinion.

Here's something to consider, and this is probably one of the best examples that I can think of at the moment. We all see these people on television winning these gigantic lottery prizes right? I mean lets face it, most people desire to obtain that kind of money right? We're all familiar with someone, or have certain family members that constantly say they want to win the lottery right? You may kinda laugh to yourself when you hear certain people say this because you know deep down that although they may want to have that kind of money, winning that type of money would probably be more damaging to their lives than good. As a matter of fact, I watched a video not to long ago that highlighted several people that had won the lotto and ultimately ended up losing all the money they won. In the worst case scenarios in the video, some of these people ended up losing their lives. It's like I mentioned earlier, it's easy to be on the outside looking in on a situation and believe that should be you right now. The question to consider is would having all the things that you want at this moment end up bringing you more happiness, or more misery if you aren't mentally and emotionally mature enough to deal with it? Something to think about right?

From my perspective, there's nothing wrong with wanting or desiring things, but we have to be aware of what we're truly getting ourselves into. As I stated previously, it all comes down to timing in my opinion. I believe that through effort, patience, persistence and consistency, we can achieve almost anything that we want. Now the key word that I want you to pay attention to is patience. See, I believe that when we're truly ready for all the things we desire the most, they will come to us naturally through the process of life. Think of it like a flowing river of water that goes naturally with its current, or a puzzle that you've been working on where the pieces naturally fall into place. If you're not mentally ready for the things that you desire, it's similar to someone throwing a stone into the river and interrupting its flow. Life can already be challenging enough as it is, so putting added stress and pressure on ourselves is like going into a battle without a strategy. I'm in no way trying to discourage or demotivate anyone from achieving the things you desire most. However, what I am trying to do here is remind you all that timing is important. There's a reason why most of us look back at certain past scenarios in our lives and say; "I wish I knew back then what I know now." Taking on too much when you're not mentally ready can ultimately lead to bad decisions that can affect your life for years to come.

Well I believe I got the point I was attempting to make across, so I'm going to wrap this up. Thank you all once again for checking out another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! Like always, the hope is that some meaning and understanding is gained from this. Even if there isn't, I still appreciate those of you that stop by. I hope you all have a great and enjoyable weekend ahead. Stay tempered and stay positive my people. See you all in the next one. Peace!

©2016 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Our Friends and Family Have Lives Too!

I believe it's fairly safe to say that we all have to rely on other people every now and then. While I'm sure that some may disagree with this, I feel the need of needing someones help every so often doesn't make you any less of an independent person. Regardless if its family, friends or even a complete stranger, we all are going to require the help of another person during various points of life. Though I do firmly believe in and promote this idea of requiring others for support, I'm also aware that there will be times where those we rely on will not always be able to be there. For some, one of the more detrimental human habits that we fall into is ALWAYS counting on those that we rely on to be at our every beck and call. As I've gotten older, I've come to realize how truly habit forming and crippling this way of thinking can be. There's absolutely nothing wrong with having to rely on others, but its also important to understand that our friends and family have their own lives as well.

Yo, what up ladies and gents? Happy February to you all, and welcome to another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective' for 2016. I hope everyone's week is going well thus far, and that the still young year of 2016 is treating you all well. As for myself, I'm pretty excited for not only this upcoming weekend, but the entire month of February in general. I'm sure that most of you know that this weekend is Super Bowl weekend for the NFL. The teams that I wanted to see in the Super Bowl didn't make it but of course being the sports fan that I am, I'm going to be tuned into the game like nearly everyone else. As for a prediction on the game, I'd personally wouldn't mind seeing Peyton Manning end his career on a high note with a Super Bowl win. That said, I don't think it's going to happen this year. Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers are a great team all around, and I really believe this is their year to take it all. I don't know what the score will be, but I expect a Panthers victory this weekend. I'll also be participating in a 5K race later this month, so I'm pretty excited about that as well. I'll likely be talking more about that in the coming weeks. Alright, that's my sports plug for the week, so lets go ahead and get into this week's topic.

This is the third blog entry for 2016, and as I always like to mention in my posts, a person's individual viewpoint on a topic will always vary from person to person. My aim here isn't to focus on what is right or wrong, but rather using this platform as an outlet to express my opinions. Through that process of expressing myself, the hope is to leave anyone that reads these entries with something to think further about. During our time of growing up as children, most of us are taught the importance of friendship, family and camaraderie. Its kinda funny to me sometimes how so many things that we're taught as children hold relevance for our the duration of our lives. I'll admit that for whatever reasons that may apply, the importance of family and friends has somewhat taken a backseat for many in our society. However, for the most part, our society in general wouldn't be able to maintain without strong friendship and family ties. The question that I want to delve deeper into today is; How much can be too much when it comes to needing our friends and family?

Like I mentioned earlier, we're taught that we should turn to those we can count on when we need them. While I do believe that calling on others for help in times of need is the right way of doing things if it calls for it, I feel that too many people in our society abuse this "lifeline" (Who Wants to Be A Millionaire reference) so to speak. We've developed into a people that often take our family and friends for granted. We often view our family and friends similar to the way that we view a lifeguard on watch at a beach or swimming pool. Whether its a big or small issue that we're facing, we're always expecting for someone to throw us that rescue tube to save us. What's even worse is the idea that many of us feel that we're entitled to the help of others. Yes, believe it or not, some people still feel that they're owed the privilege of having the help of their family and friends. Well, from my personal perspective, just like you have your own life, your friends and family have their own lives too.

From my perspective on this topic, there's absolutely nothing wrong with seeking help from our friends and family. However, too many people are quick to bad mouth and write off people because they're not always there whenever it's convenient for them. Think about this for a second, and I'm going to use this as an example for getting my point across. Imagine that you were going through a breakup, or some other issue that may have left you feeling disappointed. Now imagine that your parents, or one of your close friends that you always rely on for support were enjoying themselves doing something that they seldom get to do. Would you really want to ruin their experience because of something that you were facing that wasn't necessarily a life crisis? A person that cares about others and not only themselves, wouldn't want to burden or take away joy from others because of their own personal issues. Again, regardless of how close you are to someone, no one is entitled to always be there for you. They have lives and responsibilities of their own.

The main point that I'm attempting to make in this entry is that we have become a society that relies too much on others for problems that we often create ourselves, but then we become angry and disillusioned whenever people aren't always able to be there for us. Yes, its important to have friends and family that we can rely on, but we must also allow them to enjoy their lives as well. You don't want to be that person that is always calling on people whenever you're having problems. Everyone, even those that you're close to have their own problems to deal with, and no one wants to constantly deal with other peoples issues while dealing with their own. I think that one of the biggest ways for a person to address this issue is to work on becoming better at solving problems on our own. We have to learn how to solve the small issues on our own, and then rely on others for the bigger issues we face. I know that everyone has problems, but some of us make our issues a lot more bigger than what they really are. Finally, and this is probably the biggest takeaway from this post. If you're one of those people that continuously burden others with your problems, you're literally contributing to your own downfall. Again, the people that you're close to will always love and care about you, but that doesn't mean that they won't get tired of being around you if you're constantly being a burden to them.

Well I think I got my point across, so I'm going to close this out for this week. Like always, thanks to everyone who stopped by for another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'. I hope that there was some meaning and understanding gained from this and even if there wasn't, I still appreciate those of you that took out the time to read this. I hope you all have a great rest of the week ahead, and enjoy the Super Bowl this weekend. See you all in the next one. Peace and love!

©2016 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.