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

Tweet

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.

Your Worth Isn't Defined By A Number.

Tweet

Even from a very young age of life, the majority of people realize how big of a role that numbers have on our lives. Numbers are just as important to life as the alphabet, and it can even be debated as to which of the two is the most important. Whether its dealing with academics, money, age and etc, numbers will continue be involved in our days daily. While numbers are understandably a crucial aspect of life, I've come to notice how often that we as a society define people by numbers. This particular thought has been weighing pretty heavily on my mind as of late, and whenever that starts to happen, I have to use this platform to address my individual thoughts about whatever it is. Since much of society defines others by numbers; something that I've come to wholeheartedly disagree with, I'm going to be addressing why I feel that a person's worth shouldn't be defined by numbers.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all! Welcome to the first edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective' for 2016. We made it guys! Although 2016 is still brand new, I hope that the new year has been peaceful and positive for everyone thus far. I kinda slacked up posting these entries during the latter part of 2015, and for that I apologize. I was heavily involved in a few other things that I'm interested in, plus it was the holiday season, and I spent quite a bit of time with the relatives. I'm back again now however, and what better way than to get the new year started with being active on here active? I must say that I'm feeling pretty good so far into this year. One thing that has me feeling great is that my grandmother will be celebrating her 82nd birthday this upcoming weekend. I'm definitely happy about that, as well as some other positive things that have happened for me as of late. Alright, lets go ahead and get into why I feel that we shouldn't be defined by a number, or numbers.

Like I mention in all my entries on here, a person's individual viewpoint on any topic varies from person to person. The goal here isn't to focus on what is right or wrong, but rather having an outlet to express individual opinions on topics that will hopefully get others to think about and reevaluate. Now we all know that we live in a very materialistic society. This has been stated time and time again, almost to the point where it has become a broken record for most. I'm not saying that everyone views the world in this manner, however, society in general normally defines people by the amount of wealth a person has acquired, as well as the kind of material possessions a person obtains. Now I'm not going to say that none of this isn't important. There definitely are certain things that could be classified as "materialistic" that are required in order to survive in this world, and money for a prime example is one of them. A person would be naive to believe that money doesn't have a degree of importance in life.

Now what do material items, money, cars, etc all have in common? Yep, you guess it; they are all defined by different amounts, which means that they are essentially numbers beyond the purposes they serve. As I mentioned previously, numbers are important in everyday life, and since the things I mentioned involve numbers, they are of course important as well. While all of that is fine and dandy, here is the issue that stems from the root of this topic. While numbers are important to life, the over-emphasizing of numbers has created a system where we as a society has come to devalue other individuals as human-beings. We are tying a person's worth to superficial things, which in turn is causing us to look at our fellow men and women only as being numbers. It's almost as if the less a person has from a monetary standpoint, they are viewed by society as being worthless. This isn't cool in my opinion, and this way of thinking has seriously messed up our psyche.

One of the biggest examples of this that I can think of off top is the whole number system that we've created in regards to how a person looks. We've become a society that uses a scale of 1 through 10 to evaluate how physically attractive a person is. Of course a 10 (aka a dime piece) means that a person is super attractive, and a 1 means a person isn't. Now take a moment and think about that for a second. We're judging other HUMAN-BEINGS on something that they cannot even control. Do you even realize how shallow minded that is? Yes, I understand that everyone isn't going to be the apple of a person's eye, but isn't beauty supposed to be in the eye of it's beholder? Despite all of that, I personally think that it's wrong to rate others by something they cannot control due to a shallow and superficial scale that society has made up. I realize we've all been young and probably done it before at some point, however, that doesn't mean that it's necessarily right.

From my perspective, we need to try getting back to a time where things were much simple. A time when people didn't judge a person's worth by superficiality. Humans shouldn't be viewed like items that you purchase at a store with price tags. If you're a person that feels down from time to time because others have made you feel you're not attractive or rich enough, just remember that your worth isn't defined by a number. You are still a human-being and regardless as to what your age or social status is, you can still contribute to the greater good in some way. Invaluable qualities like knowledge, wisdom, and character; things that a good portion of society is lacking today, can be way more important to the greater good than a beautiful face and nice body. Going out of your way to help others by volunteering, or doing something nice for the elderly can be just as important than how much money you have in your bank account. If you care bout numbers that much, how about counting how many times you've helped others. In the end, the only numbers that really matter are the number of times you contribute to something or someone bigger than yourself.

Well I believe I got my point across in this entry, so I'm going to go ahead and bring this to an end. Thank you once again for joining me on another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'. My hope is that there is some meaning and understanding gained from this entry, and even if there isn't, I still appreciate those of you that stopped by. Happy New Year to you all again, and I'll see you all in the next one. Peace!

©2016 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.