Why Having Principles That You Stand By Is So Important.

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One of the common themes that I have talked about at various times throughout the years via this blog is the subject of change. I've brought the idea of change up in sub-contexts, and I've also made it the primary theme of several topics in the past. I feel that the reasoning behind this stems from how prevalent change is within the grand scheme of life. I also believe that change is truly limitless in context and how it is understood by us as people. The context in which I am bringing up change in this topic deals with how much change the world has gone through. The world has and will constantly be changing, but I believe that most of us would agree that the world has changed fairly drastically in the last year and a half. Much of this global change has caused a major shift in how we as people view life. I would dare say that the changes that have occurred have created a more deep seeded division among people. It is almost as if people have been forced to choose one side or the other, and that if you aren't on a particular side that is deemed as being more popular, you are viewed as being an outcast. A popular and one of my favorite quotes is "If you don't stand for something, then you will fall prey to anything!" A good majority of people in today's world don't have principles that we stand by as individuals. Having principles that guide our thinking and way of life is something that we're not only lacking, but something that we have to understand the importance of having.  

 

What's up my folks! This is your boy Brad H. to bring you another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I am back to give my perspective on a topic that I believe would be helpful towards helping us become better people. I hope you all have been doing great since the last topic! It is so hard to believe that we are already about to be in the month of September. Time just passes by so fast! So for my soapbox this week, I want to address something that some of you that are frequent readers on here may have noticed. I unfortunately have not been able to keep up with the regular schedule of posting every other week as I have maintained for much of the time I've been doing this. I know earlier this said I addressed that I may not always keep my usual schedule, but it has become more frequent where I am not posting when I normally do. There has just been a lot of personal things going on during this summer that has caused me to push the blog to the background. I just wanted to assure you all that I am still here and doing well. I think most of us can agree that the past couple of months have been pretty wild across the world, and that ultimately means that it will affects various aspects of our individual lives as well. I pretty much just wanted to use my soapbox to address that, so now lets go ahead and get into my perspective on why having principles that you stand by is so important. 

Before going into the importance of standing by our principles, we have get a couple of things out there. When it comes to the idea of an individual standing by their principles, it is important to remember that this can having a different meaning for different people. I am just coming from a more general perspective on this topic, so it is up to us as individuals to define what having principles mean to us. Also, I'm in no way using this topic to question anyone's principles or what they may believe. Everyone is free to live and think however they feel is best for them. The main goal for this topic is not to focus on individual principles, but rather the importance of us sticking by them. Now what are principles when it comes to our lives? From my own perspective, a generalized definition for principles in the context of this topic is a system of beliefs and truth that we have that guide how we carry ourselves. I wouldn't call that an official definition, but rather how I personally interpret what it means to have principles as I see it. Believe it or not, we all have principles in some form or another. Many of us have certain beliefs that we adhere to and use those beliefs to govern how we live our lives. Some people may refer to it as a "code" on how to live or act when it comes to life. Though we all have principles that we abide by, knowing what value they mean to a person and how they affect a person's life is not addressed enough today.

What does it mean for a person to have principles? What are some qualities that people with principles have? I'll start by giving my perspective on what I believe it means for an individual to have principles. From my perspective, a person with principles means simply standing by what they believe in. This doesn't necessarily mean that they are always right in what they believe. It means that this person doesn't allow society to dictate how they think and feel, and it will often take more than jumping atop a bandwagon to get them to waver in the things they believe. I personally believe that people with solid principles have a bit of wolf mentality when it comes to how they approach life. When I say a wolf mentality, I mean that they probably stand alone in a lot of what they believe. We all know and have heard how wolves have a loner mentality when they are out in the wilderness, right? Now this isn't something that we want to take literally. People with principles are not always loners; I want to be sure and make this clear. I also believe that people that stand by their principles are people that are comfortable in their own skin, and also not afraid to speak what they feel to appease others. I do realize that not everyone can relate to people that are straightforward, but I think we can agree that most people this way are respected, even if they're not always liked by a lot of people. 

We've defined what it means for a person to stand by their principles, and we've talked about what I perceive to be qualities that principled people have. So why it is so important for us to stand by our principles? My perspective on this comes down to the society that we're currently in. I believe that too many of us don't always stand by our principles because we want to liked by everyone. Now I don't believe there is anything wrong with wanting to be liked, but there is a line that needs to be drawn. That line is that even if you are liked by many, you will never be liked by everyone. Too many of us sway and waver on things that we're passionate about because we want to accommodate others. There are going to be times when you have to accommodate others, but you should never have to compromise who you are and what you think to do so. It's unfortunate that this society we live in today has forced too many of us to stray from our principles just to fit in. With everything happening in the world today, we cannot afford to not stick by our principles. There are too many entities that are seeking to control how we think, and many of us are going to be manipulated by this in the end. If something that you believe in feels right to you, stick by it. Don't worry about if it aligns with the masses. Like I pointed out earlier, sometimes it is best to have and maintain a wolves mentality in this world. 

That's about all I got for this time around everyone! I want to thank you all once again for tuning into another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I hope that you all found this topic helpful, and that you were able to take something positive away from it. As always, feel free to add any comments or feedback in the comment box. You can also find me on Twitter @BradrickH if you'd like to connect with me on there. I hope you all have an enjoyable rest of the weekend, and please keep the people of Louisiana in your thoughts as there is a major hurricane about to bear down on them. Have a great week ahead, and I'll see you all on the next topic!

©2021 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

The Importance Of Being Able To Adapt To The Unpredictability Of Life.

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A common theme that I've brought up over the years via these topics that I've addressed is the idea of change, and how it is enviable in our lives. There is absolutely nothing in this world that stays the same forever. I believe that the majority of people are willing to acknowledge this. In some ways, the idea of change can be viewed as a comparison to how we evolve as people. We all start our journey of life as babies, and as life carries on we develop into adults. Throughout the process of developing into adults are constant changes happening to our minds and bodies. One of the interesting things about change and how it unfolds in our lives is that is that it has many forms and layers. It can be something that is hard for some people to accept, while others may welcome it. Furthermore, and similar to the constant changes that we go through physically and mentally, there are going to be instances where change will have both pros and cons. There will spots of change that will be welcoming in our lives. These types of change are generally considered good and the type that serves us in a positive way. On the opposite side of the spectrum when dealing with change, some forms of change may not be so appealing to us. These particular characteristics of change are the type that many of us have a hard time accepting, and could be considered as negative depending on the how the individual handles it. There is a famous quote by legendary martial artist Bruce Lee that is often quoted by many. The by Lee states; “You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.” When I hear this quote, I think of how important it is to be able to adapt to the unpredictability of life.

Yo, what up peeps? This is ya man Brad H. back on the scene once again, and I would like to welcome you all back to another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I am back once again to give my perspective on a topic that I feel would be beneficial to address. Thank you in advance to all of you that have read this far, and I hope that this topic will touch someone out there. Before getting into this week's topic, I want to give my opinion on a topic other than the focal point of this installment. I want to briefly give my take on the NBA since the playoffs will be starting pretty soon. I believe the defending champion Golden State Warriors are still the favorite to win it all once again this year. However, like others have brought up also, I'm beginning to see signs that this Warriors dynasty is beginning to crumble. A prime example is last night's game against the Minnesota Timberwolves that they lost. I would have to say that the final six seconds of that game was a total meltdown by the Warriors. Then I see them lose to the lowly Phoenix Suns a couple of weeks ago, a game that I would never expect a healthy Warriors team to lose. Now in the Warriors defense, I will say that they could just holding off playing their best ball until the playoffs get here. I mean it is the later part of the season where most of the terrible teams are tanking, and the teams that are solidly in the playoffs are probably milking it a bit. I still feel the Warriors should be considered the favorite to win it all once again. However, I see several teams that I could potentially see knocking them off the throne. As for my San Antonio Spurs, I can't really see them moving past the seven seed. It is possible, but not likely with only six games remaining. It would be nice to see them advance out of the first round this year, but I'm not so sure if they end up facing the Denver Nuggets or Houston Rockets. We shall know in due time, but I think it is pretty cool that although there are only a handful of games left, there are still teams jockeying for position in both conferences. I'll be talking more NBA related things in upcoming topics, but for now I'm going to end it and transition into this week's topic of being able to adapt to the changes of life.

Before diving more into this week's topic, I want to start off by saying that a topic such as this one requires us to understand that there is a great deal of subjectivity to it. We all react and handle situations in different ways, so this isn't something that should be viewed in a vacuum. Just wanted to be sure and state that. Now going back to the quote by Bruce Lee that I brought up earlier, he states how water is formless and becomes whatever it is put into. Now though the human body is primarily made up of water, we as people aren't physically able to become whatever situation that we're put into. I can't just jump into a tub and become the tub, nor can I get into a car and become the car. What I believe Lee was trying to convey in his message is the importance of being able to mentally adapt to the situations that life puts us in. I talked earlier about how change is something that is guaranteed to happen in life and how many people struggle with certain types of change. Naturally, if you have been accustomed to anything whether a person or object constantly being in your life, losing that person or object will have an effect on you. If you've been used to living your life a certain type of way and find that you've been thrown off of that way of living, it is going to play a huge role in how you live your life going forward. Situations such as these require for us to adapt to the circumstances at hand to keep ourselves going. It is not much different than how an animal in the wild adapts to its environment to survive. Now when it comes to animals and their ability to adapt, what happens to the animals that are unable to adapt? I won't say what happens, but I'm certain that all of you already knows what happens to them. To a certain degree, this is similar to what we as humans are fighting against when it comes to change.

Before I get the obvious reason of why it is important to be able to adapt to how unpredictable life can be, I want to give an example of a situation that may require a person to adapt to change. I'm bringing up this particular example because, though it may be one that most of us that may not be wealthy can really relate to, it is one that has affected many people that have had to get accustomed to a lifestyle that they may not be used to. Now we all know that around the time period of 2008-09 that the United States was hit by a massive recession. There were a lot of banks and businesses that shutdown, and there was an epidemic of people losing their jobs. Now there were many people that experienced losses during that period that put them in a situation where they had to adjust their lifestyle. If a person goes from making 120,000 dollars per year to 40,000, that is a pretty significant income change. Now an individual that has the ability to adapt to a change of this nature will make the necessary adjustments to keep themselves moving forward. Unfortunately, there were some people that were not able to adapt to a lesser way of living, and it ultimately ended up becoming detrimental to them and their families. There were stories of people that were turning to bad habits such as drugs and alcohol to cope, and in some drastic cases, people had committed suicide. This is just one example of many that I could bring up, but I wanted to point this out because of how drastic things can get when a person can't adapt to the changes of it. We all know that life can be tough at times, and it isn't always easy to adapt to change.

So why is it important to be able to adapt to change and the unpredictability of life? Well in some instances, in order to survive, you have to adapt. In other words, there are some situations in life where if we're not willing to adapt to changes, we run the risk of not surviving the changes. There are going to be times when your life is on the line, and if you're not able to adapt to whatever situation that life throws at you, you run the risk of losing it all. I know it sucks to hear these kinds of things, but we have to picture life as if someone has pushed us into the deeper part of the water without us being aware of it initially. In those kinds of scenarios, you will either sink or swim right? If you want to give yourself a fighting chance of surviving, you're going to swim to the best of your ability aren't you? The positive note that I want to leave this topic on is the fact that though it may be tough adapting to change at times, I believe that we as a people rise to the occasion in most instances. When I think of how great people of the past survived and endured hard times in their lives, I feel encouraged that the human spirit can rise above almost anything that life can throw at us. As I mentioned earlier, adapting to what life throws at us isn't always an easy thing to do. We as people just have to be willing to accept the fact that change is going to happen in life. From my perspective, the willing to accept change is the first step of the process of being able to adapt to the unpredictability that is life.

Well that is pretty much all I have to say for this go round people. I hope that I was able to express myself in a manner that could be understood. This has once again been another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective' brought to you by Brad H. Thanks goes to all of you that stopped by. I'm so grateful and appreciative of you that did. If any of you have any questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to do so in the comment section. If you're on Twitter and you'd like to connect with me, you can do so at the handle @BradrickH. I hope that the weekend is treating you all well so far, and I hope you all have a great upcoming week. I'll see you all soon! Peace!

©2019 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

The Journey Towards Becoming Better Will Not Be A Perfect One.

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I have a belief that there comes many periods in nearly every person's life where some kind of awakening happens. You know the kind of awakening that happens when a person feels something deep within their spirit that sends vibes that there is time for a change? It's almost like an epiphany. While some may ignore these messages and not take any action, many of us choose to embrace these awakenings with a deep passion. Those that choose to listen to themselves and take the steps towards become a better individual, often develop a passion for self-improvement that almost becomes obsessive. That type of obsessive passion can often lead to an added pressure of wanting to be perfect while on the journey of self-improvement. While striving for perfection can be a motivating force, we all know that achieving perfection is virtually impossible. This not only applies to life in general, but also the journey one takes towards wanting to become a better person as well.

What's going on ladies and gentlemen? Welcome to the second entry of 'Brad H.'s Perspective' for 2016. Like always, I hope that everyone has been doing great, and hopefully the year thus far has been both peaceful and positive for you all. As for me personally, the new year has been going pretty good so far. For those of you that read the last entry, you may already know that my grandmother celebrated her 82nd birthday recently. Well now there is another upcoming birthday for another person that is special to me, and that would be my younger sister. Although my sister and still young and will only be turning 24 years old on her next birthday, I'm still grateful for both her and my grandmother being able to celebrate turning a year older. Alright, now that I've gotten all of that out of the way, lets go ahead and talk about how the journey towards becoming will not be a perfect one.

Like I mention in my blog entries, a person's individual viewpoint on any topic will vary from person to person. The goal here isn't to focus on what may be right or wrong, but rather using this platform as an outlet to express my opinions on topics that I think about. Through that process of thinking and expressing, the hope is to leave anyone that may read these posts with something to think about. Back in the year 2012, I wrote an entry titled 'Focus On Becoming Better, Not Perfect'. If you want to check that particular blog entry out, you can read it here. Today's entry will somewhat piggyback of that post, however, since its been nearly 4 years since I had written that post, I'm going to attempt provide a more clearer and fresher perspective on today's topic. Also, with what I've learned from experiences in the past couple of years, along with just becoming a few more years older than what I had written back then, I feel that I have a greater understanding of this topic now. Besides, the awakening that I mentioned people having earlier in this post is something that I can attest to experiencing myself.

There are many different kinds of awakenings that a person can have. Whenever a person has the kind of awakening that motivates them to strive towards acquiring more knowledge or becoming a better person, there will be all kind of emotions and thoughts involved. Now when we say becoming a better a better person, what exactly does that mean? It varies from person to person but from my perspective, choosing to become a better individual is something that starts with something that is often simple. For example, lets say that a person that drinks alcohol or smokes cigarettes has an awakening that calls for them cut out those vices right? It often begins with slowly cutting back on participating in those acts until the individual gets to the point where they no longer crave those things. We all know that any kind of positive change doesn't happen overnight, and you'll be hard pressed to find anyone that can put down any bad habits cold turkey. I'm not saying that it cannot be done, but its not likely. The main point is that whatever awakening that a person has towards becoming better will be a journey full of ups and downs.

I feel that one of the biggest drawbacks that we have towards the journey of self-improvement is pressure. I'm not talking about the pressure that others may put upon us whenever we're on a journey; that's already going to be a given. I'm talking about the pressure that we put upon ourselves. While the proper amount of pressure can be a good thing towards helping in keeping us honest with our goals, the pressure that we put on ourselves to be perfect in our journeys is one of our biggest hindrances from my perspective. We often put so much pressure on ourselves to do well, that whenever we do slip up and make a mistake, we end up on a downward spiral that often puts us right back at square one. Now what happens after that? Normally, all the progress that we've made; whether its been big or small, has likely been undone. Whenever we make the choice to stop a habit we deem as bad, we must understand and accept that the journey will not be a perfect one.

We're not perfect people, so whatever journey that we're on towards improving ourselves will not be perfect as well. Whatever vices or habits that you're trying to break from your life, think of them as stages. Lets say that you go a certain amount of days without participating in a habit you're trying to rid out of your life right? View the days that you succeeded as one stage, and then set goals towards reaching the new next stages and so on. Eventually, you'll build up enough resistance to the point where you won't have the need for those bad habits. When that starts to happen, that's when you'll know you're beginning to change for the better. Again, it varies from person to person, and you should never judge your progress with others. If you happen to slip up and make a mistake or relapse on your journey, don't go and undo the progress you've already made by falling back into your habits permanently. Pick yourself back up, and look to go even further than you did before you slipped up. I'm going to sum this up by repeating something that I heard someone say recently. The goal should be progress, not perfection.

Alright folks, I think I got the point that I was looking to make across. With all of that said, I'm going to go ahead and close out this entry of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'. As always, I'd like to thank everyone who joined me today, as well as in the past. My hope is that some meaning and understanding can be gained here, and even if there isn't, I still appreciate those of you for your support. Feel free to leave any feedback or thoughts on this topic. Hope you all have a great week ahead, and I'll see you all in the next one. Peace!

©2016 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.