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.

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