What Other People Think About You and Your Life Is Their Business, Not Yours!

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Many of the thoughts and inspirations that I draw upon come from some of the motivational speakers that I enjoy listening to. One of my favorite motivational speakers to listen to is a man named Les Brown. Some of you may be familiar with him already. I haven't been up on Mr. Brown's work all that long, only for maybe a year or so. However, during the short span of time that I've become familiar with him, I've made an attempt to listen to as many of his speeches as I can. One of my favorite Les Brown speeches is his speech titled 'It's Possible'. Although I found the entire speech to be both informative and inspiring, there was something that Mr. Brown spoke during that speech that I thought would be a good title for this post. What's good folks? It's ya boy Brad H. back at you again with another edition of 'Brad H's. Perspective'.

I'm not going to go into many of the details of Les Brown's speech because to be honest, an entire book could probably be written about the particular speech that I'm referring to. However, what I plan on doing is using the quote from Les Brown that I'm going to use as the basis in this blog post, and relating it to how so many of us live our lives. Most of us may try to deny it, but the honest truth is that too many of us care about what other people think of us and our lives. We often hear people saying that they don't care what others think of them, but many of the people that constantly say this are the main ones making the hardest efforts to impress other people. Don't believe me? How many people do you know that go out of their way to purchase things that they probably don't really need, but their primary motivation for buying these things is that they're hoping to impress someone. Oh yea, we can't forget about the people that go way out of their way in attempts to make other people jealous.

It's amazing how we as people sometime do things for all the wrong reasons. Think about it for a second; a person buying something to show off and floss to a group of people that doesn't even like them. Is there even much logic in that? Whatever happened to just being yourself, and doing things because doing it made you happy? Why are people so hellbent on fitting in and trying to impress others? I believe that we as people in general want to feel like we're accepted by others. As I mentioned in a previous post, being the individual that you really are can sometimes be a lonely road to travel down, and not everyone that you encounter is going to like you, nor are they always going to understand you. In fact, regardless as to how good or bad of a person that you believe that you are, people are always going to have an opinion about you and your lifestyle, and in many cases, their opinions aren't going to be good ones. Guess what though; what other people think of you and your life is their business, not yours.

You may wonder to yourself; why do I say it's their business and not yours? Well like they say, your life is called your life because it's yours to live. No one can live for you, nor are they responsible for your happiness. The way that you decide to live your life, and what you want to do with your life is all on you. Therefore, how or what others perceive of you and your your life isn't any concern of yours, that's all on them. Our only concern should be doing the things that make ourselves happy. We have to continue to remind ourselves that true happiness is living life on your own terms, rather than constantly caring about what others think of you.

Now of course, there are some instances where someone else's opinion of you may hold some weight. When I think of caring about what others think, I mainly think of family members and close friends. In most cases, these are the people that we truly know care about us, so we tend to value their opinions. There's a big difference between worrying about what people whom have never done anything to help, uplift, or support you in any way think about you, compared to those who have proven themselves. One of the biggest issues we face is that many of us put too much stock into caring about those who shouldn't matter, and not enough on the ones that do. I think that pretty much about wraps it up for this 'Brad H's. Perspective' post.

The key point that I want to drive home is that we shouldn't be overly concerned about what people think in regards to our lives. My thinking on this especially applies to the people that only have negative opinions and thoughts of you, but have never provided any ideas or support to help take your life to the next level. In fact, it's probably better to remove those kind of people out of your life completely. As with my other posts, I want to say that everything that I've written about only applies to myself. Just view it as advice that you can use however you see fit. Whether you decide to use it or not, I appreciate those of you that take out the time to stop by. I'll see you in the next post. Peace!

Focus On Daily Goals, Rather Than Long Term Goals. (Marathon vs. Sprint Mentality).

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November 15, 2013; the last time before now that I posted on this blog. Wow, it's now been exactly a two month hiatus that I've been on. As some of you may already know from previous entries, I'm not one to make excuses for my sporadic extended absences from time to time. However, there were several circumstances that led to me developing a lack of motivation to write anything for a few weeks. I don't want to get into too much detail, but I ended up losing a very close relative of mine a few days before Thanksgiving. We all know that it's never easy to deal with the loss of a loved one. It's one of those things that we all experience at sometime or another and no matter how many times we have to go through it, it's a feeling that we can never fully get used to. R.I.P. to my Aunt Gloria. You will forever be missed.

Although we're a little over 2 weeks into 2014, I want to begin by wishing everyone a Happy New Year! Because I literally haven't posted since 2013, I think it is fitting to start off the 2014 run of 'Brad H's. Perspective' by wishing everyone a happy and prosperous new year. Since we're still fresh into this brand new year, I think that the topic that I have planned comes at a good time. I think that this topic will apply to those of us that may have some goals set for this new year. I also hope that it resonates with those who make those New Years resolutions that often disappear after a month or two.

Anyone that knows me pretty well are aware that I'm not one to make New Years resolutions anymore. I'll admit that I've made them in past years like most other people when a new year rolled around. However, I made the decision to throw in the towel on them maybe 3 or 4 years ago. I just personally started to find them to be nothing but excuses for some of the things that I should be already doing year round on a consistent basis. Also, I found that the New Years resolution pep talks sounded good at the beginning of the year but as the months began to pass by, they began to become more and more irrelevant.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for people being optimistic in regards to living to see a new year. For some reason or another, a brand new year can mentally gives us hope and a fresh outlook that we can change whatever wrongs that exist in our lives for the better. However, I personally believe it's more beneficial to concentrate on setting daily goals, rather than long term goals that may be more difficult to achieve. You're probably wondering to yourself; What is the difference? Well from my viewpoint, those daily goals that you set and accomplish are the ones that can help those long term goals to be reached the proper way.

Prime example; lets say that a person is aiming to lose weight for the new year, which is a goal that A LOT of people set for the new year. Now do you believe it would be more beneficial to lose weight the healthy way by dieting and exercising daily, or by partaking in poor dieting habits where you're probably not exercising, and starving yourself to get those pounds off? Both of these methods can lead to reaching the goal of losing weight, but focusing on losing weight daily will allow the weight to come off in a manner that is not detrimental to your long term health. One other thing to keep in mind when it comes to daily goal setting is that it helps in teaching us to become disciplined in life. Positive daily habits and consistency are the key, regardless of whatever our long terms plans may be.

Always try to keep in mind that life is a marathon rather than a sprint. Work towards those long term goals by focusing daily on whatever it is that you're trying to achieve. View your daily goals as pieces of a larger puzzle that you're planning on piecing together. We don't have to always rush and accomplish things overnight. Sometimes it's good to just take your time and pace yourself. Slow and steady wins the race.

Well that's all I have for this edition of 'Brad H's. Perspective'. I want to stress that what was discussed in this post applies to me, and that I'm not telling anyone how to approach their goals. Just view it as friendly advice through my own thought process. I hope that it touches someone. I have more ideas and topics planned for this year, and I hope that you'll join me on this journey. Again I want to wish all a healthy and prosperous 2014, and I hope that you all achieve whatever goals you have for 2014. I'll see you in the next post. Peace!