Look Out For Others, But Make Yourself A Priority As Well.

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I think that we as humans-beings in general have a natural inclination of wanting to help out others. I think that having a level of servitude and helping others gives us an often indescribable feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. Think back to a time where you maybe someone that was shorter than you needed your help to reach something that you could reach easily. Maybe you have a friend that was facing a crisis and needed your help to watch their kids while they handled the situation at hand. Regardless as to whether the level of help we've given others is big or small, the often indescribable feeling remains. Now while I do feel that it is very important to help out our fellow man whenever we possibly can, there can often be times where we somewhat overextend ourselves to help out others. I'm sure that most of you know exactly what I'm talking about in saying this. We all have those moments where we just feel that we're constantly putting the needs of others ahead of our own. Anyone that has had this feeling before knows how frustrating that it can be, and you can believe me when I tell you that I know exactly how you feel if you've experienced this feeling. Looking out for others is the right and noble thing to do, however, it may be time to reevaluate things if doing so causes friction in your own life. We have to find a balance of looking out for others, but making ourselves a priority as well.

Hey, how's it going ladies and gentlemen? It is me Brad H. back at it once again, and I'd like to welcome you all to another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! A big thank you like always goes out to everyone who stopped by once again to read up on my topics. I hope that everything has been going pretty well for you all since the last time we were together via this platform. If things haven't been going the best for you as of late, just remember that tough times do not always last. Try to keep your head up, and keep on striving for better in your life. I mentioned in the last post how the year 2017 has been challenging for me personally, so although we are all facing different issues and struggles in our lives, I can definitely relate if anyone has been dealing with things. For anyone that has been facing issues lately, lets try to put them to the side for a few minutes and get into this week's topic. For my basketball fans out there, I'm sure that you all have been enjoying the NBA playoffs. The playoffs this season has been pretty interesting so far. We saw the Milwaukee Bucks give the Toronto Raptors a tough series, but go down last night. We've also seen the Chicago Bulls give the Boston Celtics all they can handle, although I think Chicago may come up a bit short tonight. The Memphis Grizzlies also gave my San Antonio Spurs problems like they always do, but thankfully the Spurs won the series last night. We'll see how this all plays out in the coming days, but the playoffs have been pretty solid so far. That's pretty much all I have to speak on in regards to getting on my soapbox for a bit, so lets go ahead and get into this week's topic.

As I normally do before getting more into the topic for the week, I'd like give a disclaimer and say that our individual viewpoints as people will always vary. My objective here is isn't to focus on what is considered to be right or wrong, but rather to inspire those that read to view various topics from a different approach than normal. I don't expect everyone to agree with my approach or views on these topics that I talk about. The goal here is first inspire myself, and then hopefully through the process of writing out my thoughts, to inspire others as well. Whatever thoughts or feelings that anyone has regardless if they align with mine or not are welcome here. Now as for some insight on how this week's topic came to be. I've been thinking about this topic a lot of late, as I feel that it definitely applies to myself. As I stated earlier, many of us go out of our way to help out others but through the process of constantly helping out others, we sometimes neglect our own wants and needs. That being said, I want to express that everything that I will say this week in the way of giving out advice is primarily for myself. It has taken a combination of other people pointing this out to me, along with something within me telling me that I have to look out for myself more. Sometimes in order for a change to occur within our lives, we have to be willing to address some topics that we may not want to. That's exactly what I'm aiming to do here.

One of the things that I've mentioned many times in past topics is the important of maintaining balance in our lives. Whenever the scales in our lives are tipped too far in one direction, we find that our lives can become more chaotic and hectic. Since chaos isn't what we want in our lives, we have to be able to find the proper balance to keep our life scales aligned properly. The reason that I'm bringing up balance once again is because it directly applies to what I'm aiming to address in this week's topic. If you're the kind of person that often finds that you're constantly doing for others and you're putting the things you want to do to the side on a regular basis to accommodate other people, then the scales of your life are more than likely not aligned properly. Like I mentioned earlier, we should always be willing to help out the people we care for. However, at what cost does helping out others should we pay for when it comes to our own lives? How much should we be willing to do for others before we put ourselves first? Those are questions that only we as individuals can answer, however, I would say that if you find yourself asking these questions more often than not, then there is a likely need for a change in your priorities. Again, I want to stress that because my eyes are closer to me than anyone else, all of what I'm saying applies to me as well.

So now that we've established that doing for others before self constantly likely means there is a lack of balance in our lives, I want to talk about the mental aspect of this topic. Now we often hear people talk about how selfish our society is in general. We hear all the time that people are selfish and only think about themselves right? While it is very true that we live in a very selfish and ego driven society, I've come to realize that being selfish sometimes is required in order to find happiness within. Think about it for a second; imagine that you're constantly putting things that you're passionate about on hold to be there for others. How exactly is constantly doing for others going to help you? You may be able to find some joy in helping others, but we'll never feel truly fulfilled and happy with ourselves if we're not living life on our own terms. This can be mentally damaging, because those of us that engage in this often will feel as if we're always doing for others, but feel that no one is doing for us as well. This is a problem, because it can create a standard of feeling that we are owed something from the people we do for, and I personally feel that we should do and give without expecting anything in return. From my perspective, this is not how we should be thinking. When we do for others, it should be done because it is in our heart without expecting anything back.

Now with all of that being said, I'm not saying that we should always be selfish, nor am I saying that we shouldn't do for others. I'm simply saying that we should look to find a balance of helping other people when we can, but we should always make our own lives a priority first. I understand and realize that this isn't always easy to do, and there is no clear cut way to answer for it. However, I will say that a change is probably necessary if you find yourself becoming increasingly bitter and angry for constantly helping others. From my perspective, helping out other people should feel like a privilege rather than a burden. So for everyone that this topic may apply to, lets work on trying to make our own lives a priority as well. We should do all we can to help other people, but I believe now that the best way to help others is to help ourselves first. We only get one shot at life, so we should aim to live it on our own terms. Basically, don't allow the needs of others to deter you from doing the things you want. The quote that I'm going to leave you all with this week comes from an unknown, but I think it is a really good one that sums up this topic pretty well. "Make yourself a priority once in a while. It's not selfish, it's necessary."

Well that about sums up this week's topic ladies and gentlemen. Thank you once again to everyone that stopped by for another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! As usual, my hope is that there was some meaning and understanding that could be gained from this topic. In the event that there wasn't, I still appreciate those of you that stopped by. Feel free to address any comments or thoughts below if you'd like. Well the weekend is upon us, so hope all of your sports fans out there enjoy the NBA games tonight, as well as the NFL Draft. If you're not a sports fan, I hope you have a good weekend doing whatever you're interested in. Alright guy's I'm out, so I'll see you all in the next one. Till the next time we meet, I wish you all peace, happiness, and positive thoughts.

©2017 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

Avoid Making Negative Thinking Habitual.

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Most people that look to inspire other people, or seek inspiration for themselves are happy with pushing and promoting the power of positive thinking. I'm a firm believer and advocate of positive thinking and actions, but I'm also aware that we all have times in our lives where negativity rears its head. We are often taught to believe that we should always be positive individuals regardless of what we're facing, but we know from experience that isn't always the case. Like I've stated before, regardless of how positive an individual may be, we all have moments and incidents that can contribute to putting us in a negative mindset for a brief period. Now although I believe in and push positive thinking, I think that occasional bouts of negativity can be somewhat healthy. I know that probably sounds a bit weird. For me, the problems creep in when we take those stints of negativity and turn them into negative habits. This is something that we all see and hear about much too often in our world today. It's almost like a snowball effect in some ways. You have this tiny snowball that is negativity, and then it balloons into something bigger. Then before you know it, you've went from someone that is occasional negative to someone that is constantly negative. As with most things in life, negative thinking can become habitual, and this is something that we should aim to stop before it gets out of hand.

What's good ladies and gentlemen? It is I Brad H. back at it once again, and welcome to another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! Thanks to everyone that stopped by once again. Hope everyone has been doing great since the last edition. If you happen to have negative things going on in your life right now, try to keep on holding your head high. Most importantly, keep on striving towards changing your life for the better. As for me personally, I've doing okay, but I haven't been as great as I'd like. In my last post, I mentioned how 2017 has been a challenging year so far. The challenges have continued as there have been some unfortunate events happen to people that I care for. I can't speak for anyone else, but I feel somewhat inadequate whenever someone that I love is going through trials. It's like despite things going well for me, I sometimes feel that I should be suffering along with them. I know that isn't the right way to think, but it's very hard to feel fulfilled when people you care for are experiencing pain. If there is any advice I can give to anyone out there going through something similar, I would say to please be sensitive to what other people are going through. You may not have all the answers, and you honestly don't need to have all the answers. All you have to do is be there for others to the best of your ability. Believe it or not, your presence will do all the speaking for you. Just wanted to throw that out there. Alright now, lets go ahead and talk a bit more about the avoidance of making negativity habitual.

As with the normal disclaimer that I give, I'd like to say that our individual viewpoints and opinions will always vary. The objective here is isn't to focus on what is considered right or wrong, but rather to hopefully encourage readers to view various topics in a different light than they normally would. The way that I view or see things isn't the only way of viewing things, and I don't expect everyone to agree with me. The goal is first inspire myself, and through the process of writing out my thoughts, hopefully inspire others as well. It is perfectly okay if anyone disagrees or feels differently, and whatever thoughts and feedback that anyone has is totally welcome. I really don't have much to contribute in regards as to how this particular topic came about. I would mainly credit thought as to how this topic came about. A few nights ago before heading off to sleep, I was thinking as I often do, and about how so many of us fall into the pattern of constantly being negative. I thought to myself that negativity isn't totally bad since there are a few good things that can come from it. However, one of the things that can expand and make negativity worse is when we allow it to become a habit that we develop. In my opinion, when negativity runs your life and you find yourself thinking nothing but negative thoughts, you've probably gone a bit too far with it. Because I feel this is so rampant in our society today, I want to try and do my part in addressing it.

Now as I mentioned earlier, I feel that it is perfectly normal for us to experience negative thoughts and emotions. Many of us attempt to see the good in everything that we experience, and there's nothing wrong with that. However, the truth is that we sometimes need to experience negative events in our lives. The reason I feel this way stems from the idea of being appreciative. Life is all about being balanced and not letting the pendulum swing too far away from it's opposite. We have to experience negative emotions occasionally, because if we didn't experience them at all, we wouldn't be able to appreciate the positive things that happen in our lives. Think about this as an example. Imagine that you have a nice car that you end up crashing or something of that nature. Because of this event, you will maybe find yourself without the car or a car in general for sometime. Crashing the car and losing it could be classified as something negative right? Now if you're the type of person that is always having a car or never knowing the feeling of being without one, you probably wouldn't handle this too well since you're not used to it. Now if you're smart and learn from the things that happen in your life, you will likely have a greater appreciation for the next car you have because you know what is is like to have and lost. All of this stemmed from something negative that happened, but if you were able to learn from the experience, it likely put everything into perspective.

Now that I've established why I believe it is necessary to experience negativity occasionally, I want to talk about making negative thinking a habit. Now some of us find ourselves developing a habit of negative thinking when we find bad events happening in our lives more often than we would like. It's like when you feel like things are going bad for you more often than not, you start to expect bad things to constantly happen. From my perspective, this is exactly how a negative mindset can become a habit forming routine and before you know it, you've become a person that is negative on a regular basis. Instead of being able to see the things that happen for what they are, which are often just circumstances, we allow those circumstances to dictate how we view other aspects of life. Now remember when I stated in the car example earlier that a negative event that occurs can be put into perspective if something was learned from it? From my perspective, a negative can become a positive if we're able to take anything that happened from that negative and learn from it. If you're constantly stuck in a habitual routine of being negative, then you're mind will probably be too clouded to be able to learn anything from the unfortunate events that may happen in life. Again, it is all about perspective and being able to view things for what they are. In my opinion, and this is just my opinion; a negative state of mind is formed over time. I could be wrong about this, but that is how I see it.

So why do we not want to make negative thinking become habitual? Well besides the obvious things like people likely not wanting to be around you because you push them away, or the fact that being negative all the time is such a waste of energy, a routine of negative thinking takes away our ability to appreciate things. If you're the type of person that always expects the worse to happen or only sees the bad in life, how will you be able to appreciate the good things that happen? You probably won't be able to. I understand and realize that we all deal with negative things happening in our lives, but at the end of the day, these things are all a part of life. More importantly, I believe that regardless of how many negative events happen in our lives, we always have things to be appreciative for. I'm not saying that we should always be overly positive to the point where we become delusional. I just feel that it is important to stay positive and balanced, but also be able to take something away from whatever negative events that happen in our lives. So lets try focus on and avoid making negative thinking a habit. The negative is out there and will always be around, but I always say that you don't have to give into something just because it is there. The quote that I'm going to end with a quote by Chikku George Thomas that goes; "A negative thinker see a difficulty in every opportunity, a positve thinker see an opporunity in every difficulty."

Well that is all I have for this time around folks. Thank you all once again to all that stopped through for another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! As usual, my hope is that there was some meaning and understanding that could be gained from this post. I hope everyone has an enjoyable Easter weekend. I'm pretty excited that the NBA Playoffs are starting tomorrow. My team (San Antonio Spurs) are facing the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round. I have faith in my team, but I will admit that Memphis always gives the Spurs problems. We'll see how it goes, but I think the Spurs will win the series. Hope everyone else that watches basketball enjoys the playoffs as well. Well I'm gone, so till next time we meet, I wish you all peace, happiness, and positive thoughts. See you all in the next one.

©2017 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.