It's Nobody's Responsibility To Solve Your Problems (The Answers Are Often Within).

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Everyone has moments in our lives where we find ourselves searching for answers. Life can sometimes turn our worlds upside down to the point where we finding ourselves bumbling and stumbling for answers. When these moments normally happen in our lives, the average person often seeks out the help of others. We look towards these people to give us the guidance we need to navigate the issues we're facing. While I feel it is necessary to ask for help from others from time to time, there are too many of us that look for others to solve our problems completely. It's like instead of seeking help and working together with someone to get our issues straightened out, we want others to just give us all the answers without having to do much. This is a mentality that can trickle down from one area of our lives to another, which can lead to a downward spiral of always counting on others to solve our problems. From the spiral that occurs within this mentality, a potential decline in our relationships with others can happen when the people that we count on are not always able to be there. Again, there is nothing wrong with asking for or seeking help in times of need, but it also behooves us to understand that it's not the responsibility of others to solve our problems. Furthermore, many of us would probably be surprised at how many of the answers we're seeking are already within us.

What's good my people out there? It is your guy Brad H. back once again, and I'd like to welcome everyone to another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective' once again. Respect and thanks goes out to those of you that came through to see what I'm discussing for the week. As always, I hope everyone has been doing well and maintaining. Don't really have a lot to touch on this week in regards to things that are happening in life. However, I do want to mention something about the year 2017 that I've been dealing with thus far. You know how we all have certain vibes and feelings about certain things that we can't quite explain? Well heading into this year, I had a feeling that it would be a year of both change and hardship. Not going to get into details, but I will say that 2017 has been a challenging year for me personally thus far. There has been a lot of things going on with people that I'm close to that has been affecting me as well. I'm pointing this out to let everyone know that although I come on here to talk about positive issues and topics most of the time, I have struggles that I have to deal with in my life like we all do. Staying positive can sometimes be a challenge, but the most important thing to remember is the importance of not giving up. Regardless of what is happening in our lives whether it is for good or bad, we have to continue to keep on showing up and fighting those internal battles. I just wanted to touch on that real quick, and I'll probably do a post in the future about the importance of not giving up. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, lets talk a bit more about the topic at hand on how the answers we're seeking are often within.

As with the normal standard that I've set on here, I want to point out that a person's individual viewpoints will always differ from person to person. The main point here isn't to focus on what is considered to be right or wrong, but rather to hopefully stimulate the minds of others to view certain topics in a way that they may have never considered. I'm in no way saying that my viewpoint is right, nor am I implying that the way I see things is the correct way of looking at things. I'm just hoping to first help and inspire myself, and through that process, hopefully inspire others as well. If you agree with me, cool, if not, that's fine and well and I appreciate your visit. If anyone has any feedback to contribute on this or any other topic that I've talked about, please feel free to do so in the comment box. As for insight on how I arrived at talking about this topic, I would contribute it to a combination of my thoughts, along with seeing this habit happen from others. Now because I said that, I don't want people to think or assume that I'm criticizing others that maybe engage in this habit. Heck, I myself has struggled with this before, and it took me some time to understand that my problems are not other peoples problems. Again, the goal here is to inspire and encourage. We're not here to condemn others at all. As I've stated before, and I will continue to maintain, my eyes and ears are closest to me so anything that I talk about here applies to myself as well.

Now as I stated earlier in this post, there is absolutely nothing wrong with asking others for help occasionally. We all need help from time to time, and if you happen to believe that not to be fact, you are probably kidding yourself. I realize that a lot of people like to feel like they know everything, but lets be real here, none of us have everything figured out. From my perspective, the asking of help isn't the issue at hand when it comes to solving our problems. The problem is when we feel that other people are obligated to provide us all the answers for solving our own issues. There are several reasons why this is a problem in my opinion, but there are two that I really want to put emphasis on for the sake of the topic at hand. First off, our problems and issues are ours and ours alone, which means that no one else will see nor experience our problems the same way we do. Ever heard the saying; "Your life is yours and yours alone"? The same mentality applies when it comes to your problems. Because other people aren't you and will never truly see the world you do, there is only so much that they can understand when it comes to you and how you view things. Of course people can relate and offer guidance and support, but the fact is that your issues are yours and yours alone. The second point I want to touch on is the fact that other people can't always stop what they're doing to help us.

I'm a firm believer in the old adage that no one owes anyone any help in this life, so be grateful for any help you receive along the way. This mentality is huge when it comes to handling our problems. There are people in this world that really believe that people should stop what they're doing to help them. Think about how selfish of a mentality that is for second. You really want people to not worry about the things they have to face in their own lives because you're in need? Not only is that selfish behavior, but it is also not realistic. Everyone is facing things in their lives in some form or another, and it's not morally right to expect others to be at your every beck and call. Now what I want to focus on next is the idea that the answers and solutions to our problems are often already within. What do I mean by this you may wonder? As I stated previously, only you know what is truly right for you. Again, your journey throughout life is yours and yours alone. This is exactly why I believe that most of the answers that we are looking for are already within. The thing is that we have to search within ourselves for them, which often requires a bit of something that a lot of us don't like to do anymore; thinking for ourselves. Because we've become so reliant on others for help and guidance, many of us neglect thinking for ourselves. This is something that we have to work on changing.

Again, I want to make clear that I'm not saying that we shouldn't be seeking help from others. I'd like to think that we should view any help that we receive from others as a guide or map that can help lead us down the right path. Think of an athlete that has a trainer or mentor that helps them reach their full potential in whatever sport they're in. The mentor helps give the blueprint for becoming successful, but it's the athlete that has to follow the blueprint. Whether or not the athlete succeeds all boils down to them and how much effort they're willing to put in. From my perspective, that is exactly how we should be viewing our problems. So if any of this applies to anyone out there, just remember that it's not any else responsibility to solve your issues. We have to work on exercising a bit of thought and critical thinking instead of being so reliant on others for their help. Finally, if you do have people in your life that don't mind extending themselves to help you, always be grateful to them, because they definitely don't have to do it. The quote that I'm going to leave that I think applies to this topic comes from Bev Haworth. "I am learning not to feel responsible for the problems, issues, circumstances or behavior of others. I am learning that I can show empathy & understanding and listen with care & attention without feeling the need to fix things or make them right."

Alright ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived at the end of this week's topic. Thank you once again to everyone that came through for another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! As usual, my hope is that some meaning and understanding could be gained from this. Before I get out of here, I want to give a shout out to my younger cousin Derion. He recently went off to Navy boot camp, and I've been missing him like crazy as of late. In the month leading up to his leaving, he and I had hung out a lot and worked out together. It feels a little more lonely going on my runs now without him, but I'm happy that he is doing something to better himself. I know he probably won't see this anything soon, but I love and miss you bro. Well I hope everyone has a great weekend ahead, and till next time, I wish you all peace, happiness, and positive thoughts. See you all in the next one.

©2017 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

Maintaining Discipline Requires Sacrifice, But It's Worth It.

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Most of us know by now that there are always pros and cons that come along with the decisions that we make. With nearly every choice that we make in our live regardless of how much it may benefit us, there will always be some kind of sacrifice that comes along with it. If you look at or study anyone that has achieved a significant amount of success at something they're good at, most of them mention the amount of sacrifice that was required on their part to reach their peak. I believe that this also applies when it comes to maintaining discipline in our lives as well. We all hear or have heard about the importance of being disciplined in life, but how many of us really know what discipline is? By definition, discipline is defined as being able to "train oneself to do something in a controlled and habitual way." There are other definitions and meanings as well, however for the sake of the point that I will be discussing this week, I'm going to stick to the aforementioned definition since I think it aligns more with this week's topic. The ability for one to trains themselves to have discipline is certain aspects of life can be constant challenge, and it's a journey that isn't for the faint of heart. There is an often extreme level of sacrifice and time required to maintain discipline, but the work and effort put towards it will be worth it in the end.

Hey, what's good my folks out there? It is I Brad H. back once again, and I'd like to welcome everyone to another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! A big thanks goes to everyone that stopped by to tune in once again to what I have to say for another week. Hope everyone has been staying strong, maintaining, and keep things positive in your world since the last post. In the previous post before this one, I had mentioned that I had an upcoming birthday. It's been nearly a week since it past, and I must say that I had a great birthday this year. I mentioned earlier that I'm not one to get super enthusiastic about my birthday, but I must admit that my family truly went out of their way to make the day special for me. I'm truly grateful for them, as well as being able to live and see another year on this Earth. In a time where so many are dying young, it is a blessing to us all being able to inhale and exhale daily. Another thing I briefly talked about was the 5K that took place earlier this month back on the 4th. This is the annual Kinsel Ford 5K that I've been doing since 2012. I always try to participate in this yearly race since it always falls near my birthday. This year's event was another success. I moved into another age group since first running in it, and I finished 10th in the men for my group this year. That was a pleasant surprise since I really didn't push it too hard this year. The most important thing was to have fun. Well I've talked enough for me for now, so it's time to delve more into this week's topic of maintaining discipline.

As I normally do with any of the topics that I talk about on here, I want to point out that a person's individual viewpoints will always differ from person to person. The idea with this topic and the rest isn't to focus too much on what is right or wrong, but rather to encourage others to view certain topics in a light they may not have considered before. I'm not saying that my viewpoint is right, nor am I implying that the way I see things is the correct way of looking at life. I'm just an everyday average guy hoping to inspire myself and others. If anyone has any comments or feedback on this or any other topic that I've talked about, please feel free to leave them in the comment box. Now for some insight on how this week's topic came to be. Normally I can point to a life experience or someone that I'm close to as to how I came to talk about a specific topic. That happens to not be the case this week. This week's topic on maintaining discipline is just something that came to my mind out of the blue, and I figured that it would be something that could maybe inspire those that struggle with maintaining discipline. As I've stated before in past posts, my eyes and ears are closest to me so anything that I write about here applies to myself as well. The art of maintaining discipline can be a tough habit to maintain, but doing it consistently can definitely help in improving our lives for the better.

So now that we've established what entails having discipline, I think it is necessary to talk about why having discipline in our lives is so important. From my perspective, the task of practicing discipline daily helps greatly in strengthening our minds and organizing our lives. An individual that disciplines him or herself consistently practices routines that increases their potential to improve their life daily. Like I mentioned earlier, most people that are skilled at something often have developed and maintained a level of discipline that has helped make them successful in whatever their particular craft may be. There is a saying that goes "repetition is the mother of skill." I believe that saying totally coincides with being a disciplined individual. Think about boxers that have had success in the sport of boxing. I'm sure that none of those guys woke up instantly skilled at their craft. Like every other athlete or person that has achieved greatness, it took daily trips to the gym and working with their trainers in order to become skilled at boxing. In order to get to that point, strict discipline is required. But as I stated earlier, with every pro that comes in life, there will always be a con that comes along with it. Being a disciplined individual is truly great, but it does come with a lot of sacrifice.

Now making sacrifices may not be hard for some people. However, I think that most of us struggle with sometimes having to give up certain things in order to become better at something. For example, lets say that you're a person that is trying to lose weight and become healthier, but you also loves eating sweets. You already know that in order to become a more healthier person, you're going to have to either give up on or cut back on eating sweets. This is a prime example of being willing to sacrifice in order to get to a better place. This is exactly where the being worth it aspect comes into play. There can often be a great deal of discomfort and even pain sometimes when it comes to making sacrifices, however, any sacrifice that a person is willing to make that makes their life better is worth it. From my perspective, most of us look at the sum of all the parts rather than the individual parts that lead to something greater. Many of us focus too much on what we're losing when we make sacrifices rather than what could be gained from them. It's kinda like the glass half full of empty mentality; we direct too much energy towards the things we don't have instead of appreciating the things we do. In some ways, discipline and sacrifice go hand in had with this.

Now I'm sure that many of you that may be reading this have no problem with maintaining discipline in your lives. If that's the case for you, then I truly applaud and commend you for that. For others that may struggle with being disciplined in various aspects of life, I want you to know that you are not alone. I classify myself as a fairly disciplined person, but I do have lapses when I fall into bad habits. If that is something that you can identify with, it's totally okay. We are all human and fall short at times. The biggest point that I want to get across in this week's post is the importance of recognizing the benefits of practicing discipline. If you are looking to better yourself in certain aspects of your life, my suggestion would be to take that step and really push it. Just be aware that there will be a sacrifice that is required whenever you're striving to become more disciplined. The sacrifices that are required may be your time, certain pleasure or indulgences that you enjoy, and even relationships with others. Be cognizant of that before you take on the task of being more disciplined. Keeping with the theme of boxing that I referenced to earlier, I'm going to leave this week's topic with a quote from legendary boxer Mike Tyson that deals with being disciplined. The quote goes; "Discipline is going in there and doing something that you don't wanna do, but you do it like you love it."

Well we've arrived at the end of this week topic folks. I wanna give thanks to everyone that stopped by for another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! As always, my wish is that there was some meaning and understanding that could be gained from this topic, as well as the rest of the topics that I've talked about. If anyone has any comments or feedback on this or any other topics, please feel free to drop them in the comment box. Well depending on where you live, it is beginning to get warmer so try to get outdoors this weekend and enjoy the weather. Summer will be right around the corner, and we all know how brutal it can get during those months. Go ahead and enjoy before it gets here. Alright I'm out for this time folks, so until next time, I wish you all peace, wellness, and positive thoughts. See you all in the next one.

©2017 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

Seeing Our Struggles As Tests Of Our Character And Will (Things Can Always Get Worse).

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There is a phrase that my mom once said to me as a child that I highly doubt I'll ever forget. I'm sure that most of you have heard this phrase or one of the many variations of it mentioned as well. "You don't ever wanna test worse" is the phrase that I'm referring to. As I mentioned, there are various ways of saying that things can always get worse, but this particular phrase was the one that my mom used to say to me whenever I would complain about certain things that weren't going well for me at a particular time. As I child I didn't totally grasp what exactly she meant by those words, however, now as a more wiser young adult, I can honestly say now that I understand what she meant. It is indeed true that many of us do not realize that while as bad as things may be going for us at a particular time, things can always get even worse in our lives. Because our judgement and rationale is often clouded whenever things aren't going well, we fail to see that sometimes as bad as things may be at that moment, they're often not as bad as we think. Not speaking for anyone else, but I'm personally beginning to see that a good portion of the struggles that we consistently endure are tests. From my perspective, these are tests of our character and will to keep pushing forward.

Hello once again good people. How has everything been going for you all? It is me Brad H. coming back at you all once again with another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! For anyone out there that reads regularly, thank you for stopping by once again, and I'd like to extend a big welcome to those of you that may be here for the first time. No matter who you are or how often you've visited here, I hope that you all have been doing well and staying positive since the last posting. Don't really have a lot to talk about this week besides the topic at hand. Next week on the 11th of March, I'll be celebrating another birthday. When March arrived a couple of days ago, someone asked me if I was excited for my upcoming birthday. Because I don't really display an overly enthusiastic type of persona when it comes to my birthday, I told them that it is just another day. But the truth is that I subtly always look forward to my birthday, but not for the reasons that most people do. While I do see it as just another day, I truly value what they signify as you get more and more them under your belt. For me personally, the importance of birthdays transcends partying, drinking, etc; but it signifies me being thankful for being here in a time where so many people are dying young. So while I don't get all hyped in ways that others do when it comes to birthdays, you can trust that I'm truly grateful. Alright, lets go ahead and talk a bit about viewing struggles as tests of character and will.

As I normally do before discussing my topics, I want to point out that a person's individual viewpoints and thoughts will always vary. The general concept with these posts isn't to focus on what is considered right or wrong, but rather to encourage others to view various topics in a manner that they may not have before. I never expect everyone to share the same views as I do, however, I do hope that the way I view certain topics can leave others with something to walk away thinking about more. If anyone has any comments or feedback on this or any other topic, please feel free to drop them in the comment box. As for insight on how this topic came to be for this week's installment, there isn't anything in particular that I can point to that made me want to write about this. You know what, scratch that; while I'm sitting here thinking about it, I can definitely say that there is something that I can point to that made this come to fruition. Of course my thoughts were the main factor, but I would say that I have taken notice recently on how some people that I know have been reacting to the various struggles they're facing. I'm in no way judging them, in fact, I would say that their resolve has served as inspiration for me. It is not only been inspiration for this particular post, but also for my life as well.

Now we are all aware that we're all going to face struggles throughout various times in our lives. Similar to death and taxes, struggles are something that none of us can entirely escape. Saying that kinda makes me think of what the late actor Carroll O'Connor said to one of his officers as police chief Bill Gillespie on the classic show 'In The Heat of the Night'. I can't recall it exactly at the moment, but it was something along the lines of; "You tell me how anyone who's above the ground is done with their suffering." We're also aware that some of us will have similar struggles, and there will also be occasions where our struggles differ from others. That said, one thing that is will always be different is how we react to our struggles. I may view a particular challenge that I'm facing one way, and you may view that same challenge in a completely different manner. That the beauty of us being different as individuals and thinking for ourselves. Now as I stated earlier, many of us understandably so find our judgement clouded whenever we're facing challenges. I think this often causes us to forget that while things aren't good at the moment, there is always worse that can happen. For this reason, I believe that those of us that experience this during our struggles must learn to see our struggles tests.

Now as I've stated several times earlier, our rationale is often clouded whenever we're facing a difficult challenge. This often causes us to see whatever challenge that we're enduring as more than what it really is. Think of that phrase that we've all heard that goes "You're making a mountain out of molehill." This is exactly what many of us do by no fault of our own do at times. This way of thinking is reacting not only doesn't help the situation that we're in, but it can be damaging to our psyche when it comes to being able to handle future challenges. I want you to consider this for a second; Imagine that you have suffered a disappointment in your life. Maybe you got rejected by someone that you're interested in, or maybe you didn't excel at a project that you wanted to do well at. Both of these examples can be disappointments right? But, when you think about suffering a medical scare that nearly took your life, or having to find out that someone that you love has just passed, those aforementioned things that I used as examples don't compare right? This is why I'm saying that the struggles we face are often tests. There are always greater struggles that we will have to face, and how can we be able to meet them if we're allowing troubles that don't compare to keep us down? Something to think about isn't it?

Now I'm in no way saying that any of us should perfect being able to handle hardships in our lives. Again, and I want to be sure to make this clear, we all process and see things differently. The point I want to get across is that it is entirely up to us as individuals how we process and handle the struggles in our lives. I frequently talk about the power of our minds on this blog, and a topic such as this one all comes down to changing the way we process things. From my perspective, the reason it is so important to see struggles as tests comes down to knowing that regardless of how bad things may be, they can always get worse. There is no way to fully prepare for certain things that may happen in life, but I do know that if we allow ourselves to be taken down by the challenges of life, we will probably not be able to meet the bigger ones in the future. Like I stated earlier, these struggles we endure are some of the greatest tests of character we will face. Will we pass or fail is the question. I'm going to end this topic with a quote from Thomas Paine. The quote doesn't necessary deal with things getting worse, but rather the sense of accomplishment we can experience with going forward from them. It quotes goes; "The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

Well that is all for this week folks. Big thanks to everyone that came through for another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! As always, my hope is that there was some meaning and understanding that could be gained from this topic, as well as the rest of the topics I've come on here to talk about. I'm just trying to do my part in spreading a little bit of motivation to others. Again, if anyone has any thoughts or feedback to contribute, please feel free to do so below. Well I hope everyone has a great weekend ahead. Got a 5K race tomorrow, so that should be pretty fun. I'll probably talk about that some in the next post. I will have also turned another year older by the next time, so I'll be sure to talk about that some as well. I'm gone folks, so until next time, I wish you all peace, wellness, and positive thoughts. See you all in the next one.

©2017 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.