The Importance Of Not Subjecting Reaching Your Full Potential To Others (Don't Allow Society To Define Your Success).

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Most people that would consider themselves to be motivated and ambitious will likely have goals that they want to achieve for themselves. Goals and aspirations among people will always have a degree of variance when it comes to what those goals may be. One person may strive to be the best mechanic, while someone else may be trying to be the best engineer. Because we're all different and have the ability to have different interests, the achieving of goals will always have some variance. What doesn't have variance is the fact that nearly everyone that is working towards a goal wants to achieve the highest level of that goal as possible. Think of it this way; if you are working towards something that you're interested in, do you think you just want to do enough to be able to just say that you done it? I highly doubt that is the case for most people. Most of us are seeking to do the best that we can at the things that drive us the most. With that said, the society that we live in often has a set bar for what is considered to be success. Furthermore, the aforementioned success is often based on what other people that may have achieved the same goals that others are currently striving for have accomplished. Because of this bar that society has set, many people are led to believe that they're failures because they haven't reached the level of someone else. It is a known fact that much of our society often pays attention to what the next person is doing, and this isn't any different when it comes to reaching our full potential. While I do believe that it is okay to model and seek out those that are already where many are trying to get to, it is also important to not subject your personal successes to that of others.

Yo, what's going on everybody? How is everybody doing out there? I go by the nickname of Brad H., and I'd like to once again welcome you all to another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I am back for another week to present some wisdom that leads to inspiration and positive energy in our lives. Hope all has been well for everyone since the last topic. So the NBA Finals are right around the corner. We have had two great Conference Final series going on the last couple of weeks. As it stands now, the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers are knotted at 3-3 with a game 7 coming up. I'm not a fan of either of these teams, but boy you can't help but to root for the Celtics after coming this far with all the injuries they've had. I hope they're able to pull it out, but I have a feeling that LeBron is going to be too much in that elimination game. I hope I'm wrong though. In the west, we have an elimination game tonight as the Golden State Warriors trail the Houston Rockets 3-2. This has truly been a great series, and I was totally wrong in my prediction. Though I'm pulling for Houston, I honestly thought they might have gotten swept. The tides have surely turned though, as Houston was able to get gritty victories in games 4 and 5. This has been a wild series in the sense that the Warriors haven't looked like themselves the last few games. They have been unusually sloppy, and the Rockets have managed to capitalize on it. It would be a shocker to me if Houston manages to win tonight at Oracle Arena. I have a feeling that it is going to go seven games like the series in the east. I'm pretty excited for tonight, and I'm sure the rest of you NBA fans out there are as well. We will soon know who will be facing off in the NBA Finals. I think it would be awesome if Houston and Boston could get there. I can't speak for anyone else, but I think it would be nice seeing some new blood in the NBa Finals. Both the Warriors and Cavaliers have dominated that thing for the past few years, so something new would be refreshing. Lets wait and see how it all unfolds. Well that is it for my soapbox, so I'm going to go ahead and get into this week's topic of the importance of not subjecting you reaching your full potential to society.

Now that I've gotten all of that out of the way, it is time to go ahead and give the usual disclaimer that I give before getting into the topic of the week. Every single one of us has different ways of thinking and seeing things in this life. The mission here isn't to focus on what is considered right or wrong, but rather to provide some insight that will hopefully encourage us to get the juices of thought flowing in our brains. I personally believe that it is an amazing thing when you talk to someone, or you read something that makes you go; "I've never thought about that in that way before." Besides the inspiration that I try to provide on here, the promotion of being free-thinking and open minded are the primary goal of these topics. Of course I don't expect everyone to agree with what I have to say. Again, we all have our own opinions, and that isn't any different on here. Whatever your beliefs or thought processes may be regardless if they align with mines or not, I still appreciate every single person that is interested in what I have to say. Now that I've gotten that disclaimer out there, I'm going to briefly talk about why I felt this was a topic that I wanted to address. As I pointed out earlier, I've been thinking a lot lately about what success is when it comes to the world that we live in. It could just be me thinking like this, but I sorta feel like the society that we're living in paints this picture that success is only one thing. Of course there are going to be people that catch on and cling to this way of thinking, and then they find themselves feeling like failures if they don't reach the success that society has set as the bar. Because I vehemently disagree with this, I thought it would be good for me to get on here and hopefully encourage others to think of this in a different way.

I believe that it is in our nature as humans to be competitive. Most people have an innate tendency to want to outdo the next person in nearly every aspect of life. This is probably one of the biggest reasons why so many athletes get so aggressive in the events they participate in. Now although most of us aren't athletes, the competitive aspect of sports also stems into our everyday lives. People compete for job opportunities, the attention of a potential romantic suitor, and many other aspects of life. Again the desire to compete is all natural, but is it always really in our best interest to compete with others? As I mentioned earlier, the world we live in has a standard for what is considered success, but is what the world define as success really for everyone? When most people think of success in this world, most people equate it to having a lot of money, nice car(s), nice clothes, etc. Now in saying this, I am no way implying that these things aren't perks of being successful. I think it is a good thing to want to strive to have the best things you can in life. However, if we're being totally honest here, most people likely won't obtain much of these things. Not everyone will make a six figure plus salary. Most people won't live in a mansion or two story house. A good majority of us won't be able to comfortably afford clothes that cost thousands of dollars. A lifestyle that entails these kinds of things are only reserved for a small percentage of people, and because of the standard our society has set to define success, most people feel that obtaining these kinds of things are the primary way of defining success. Again, much of this deals with us comparing ourselves to other people.

Now because most of us won't obtain these grand things that come along with society's definition of success, comparing what our success is to others is irrelevant. Instead of engaging in the act of comparison, I think it is more important on focusing on reaching our own PERSONAL full potential. See from my perspective, every single one of us has a max limit on what we're able to obtain. Now I'm not saying that we should put limits on ourselves and our capabilities. From my perspective, maxing out means being able to have a realistic outlook on what is possible for our lives. See I believe that a good portion of people think that because we see certain people doing the things that we're interested in and finding the kind of success that I talked about earlier, that it should be them as well. If someone else is making a six figure salary in a certain career, then I should also be making a six figure salary as well. This is the mindset of many people, but maybe the person making the six figure salary is more experienced or more talented. That doesn't necessarily mean that they are better than you, or that you aren't good at what you do as well. It just means that someone else believes they are, which is why they probably do better financially. As I said earlier, it is always good to strive for better for yourself, but it is also wise to be able to discern when you have reached your peak. Instead of comparing yourself to what society deems as success, you have to define what you believe your person success to be. What is good for you personally won't always coincide with what this world is doing. Again, there is nothing wrong with wanting more for yourself, but being able to be comfortable with who you are and what you have in today's society is a strength in my opinion.

So with all of that being said, how exactly do we know when we've reached our peak? Like I talked about variance earlier in this topic, it all varies from person to person. This is one of those things when an individual has to search within themselves to know when they've reached their full potential. I believe that one of the best ways to get to this point deals with not comparing yourself to others and what they're doing. Always remember that what is right for other people doesn't always mean it is right for you. It's about learning how to be comfortable in your own skin. Secondly, it is wise to not let society or other people define what your own success should be. People often talk about how it is more important what you think of yourself rather than what other people think of you. I definitely think this applies to a topic such as this one. I believe that it takes having a strong mind to have the ability to not compare yourself to this world. While I think that some competition is good because it can help keep us motivated, being able to know when to be competitive is even more important in my opinion. We often hear about how the greatest battles that we face will often come from within. Being aware of what our full potential is and not being able to allow society sway us from that is a battle that most of us will face on a daily basis. One of this society's goals is to get us to believe that we need more in this life than what we really need. Yes, it is great having a lot of nice things, but having nice things doesn't define a person on the inside. So again, lets try to focus on reaching our own full potential. Try not to allow this world that we live in to dictate what is your personal success. Your life is your own, and you should live it according to what you know and feel is right for you on the inside.

That pretty much sums up what I think on this topic, so I'm going to go ahead and bring this one to close. I hope that some of you were able to find this topic understandable and relevant to your life. This has once again been another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective', and I would like to thank everyone again that stopped through. As I always like to end these with, I hope that there was some meaning and understanding that was able to be gained from this. Anyone that has any feedback or comments, please feel free to leave them. You can also hit me up on my Twitter handle @BradrickH if you have any questions or feedback. Looks like the Gulf Coast region is going to have some rain in the next few days with this tropical storm that is about to get into the Gulf of Mexico. Kinda wild that hurricane season is already upon us. Boy was last year a rough one. Hopefully this season doesn't be as bad. Stay safe out there everyone, and I hope everyone enjoys their Memorial Day holiday. Stay encouraged and I'll see you all in the next one. Peace!

©2018 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

Why It Is Important To Have Selective Hearing When It Comes To What Others Say.

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Every single one of us knows and understands that there are things in life that we have a level of control of. On the flip side of that, we also are aware of the that fact that there are many things in this life that we have no control over at all. Take for example two of the very important organs of our bodies that the average person are born with; the eyes and the ears. Starting with our eyes; we all know that for the most part we have control over the things we choose to look at. However, unless you keep your eyes closed constantly or you are blind, you have no other choice but to see things. When it comes to our ears; we can often choose what we listen to, but unless you're deaf or keep yourself in solitude away from other people, you're going to have to hear things. People often talk about the importance of choosing what we give sight to, which is something that I've written about previously on here. While I believe it is important to be aware of the things we look at, I don't hear as often the importance of what we choose to listen to. We take in so much throughout our daily lives in the form of listening to television and people. Some of the things we listen to have positive meanings, and there are also a lot of things that we take in that are just negative and bad. While we may often not be able to control the things that we hear whether they're negative or positive, being able to discern between the two has a lot to do with being selective of our hearing. Just like people refer to the term "selective memory", being selective of listening to what other people are saying is just as important to our health and well-being.

What is going on everyone? I am Brad H., and I am back on here once more to present another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! We are here once again to bring some inspiration and knowledge that can hopefully be beneficial to our lives. I hope that all has been going good and well with everyone the past couple of weeks since the last topic. As some of you may already be aware of, I've been using this portion of my topics to discuss the NBA Playoffs recently. The playoffs are starting to wind down, as we now only have four teams left playing. We have the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers from the Eastern Conference, and the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors from the Western Conference. Now I'm pretty sure that most people that follow basketball expected the Rockets and Warriors to be in the Western Conference Finals. But honestly, how many of you expected the Cavaliers and Celtics to be the last two teams from the east standing? I know I did not. I'm not a Celtics fan, but I have to give a lot of props to their team and their coach. It's amazing how they are only one series away from being the NBA Finals after losing Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. That is a true testament to their coach, and how those guys play for one another. As for the Cavaliers, I felt like the Toronto Raptors would win that series, but that was an epic meltdown by Toronto. To be a number one seed and get swept like that is pretty embarrassing. Though I'm not a LeBron James fan, you have to give the man his credit. He has literally put the Cavaliers on his back, and you may as well say he beat the Raptors dang near by himself. Houston and Golden State should be a great series as well. I give the edge to the Warriors, but I believe the Rockets have a good chance at winning. I have always liked the Rockets, but I'm a San Antonio Spurs fan first. Being that I'm a Texan, I'm pulling for the Rockets. Plus the fact that I got to attend a Rockets game this year factors into my wanting to see them win. Both of these series should be great, so lets see how it all turns out. Alright, I think I have talked enough about the playoffs, so lets go ahead and get into this week's subject of the importance of having selective hearing when dealing with people.

As per the usual standard that I've set on here before addressing a topic, I'd like to go ahead and give the normal disclaimer that I give in each installment. We all have different ways of thinking and viewing things in this life. The idea here with these topics isn't to pound the idea of what is considered to be right or wrong into peoples minds. No, the goal is to rather encourage others to open their minds up to seeing things in a manner which they may not have before. I'm just one guy that has an opinion, so whatever I believe or feel isn't the sole way to see things. I'm just trying to get my ideas out there, and hopefully they are able to help out others. Of course it is totally okay if anyone disagrees, and if you have any feedback or comments to this or any of the other topics that I've addressed, you can always drop them down in the comment box. In regards as to how I arrived at talking about having selective hearing when it comes to others, I would attribute it to recent thoughts that I've had on how limited our control can be when it comes to seeing and hearing things. However, though we often have little option of being able to hear things, we do have control over how we react to the things that we hear. This is just something that has been weighing on my mind as of late, so I figured this would be something that I could feed some energy into. Besides, I know that there are many of us out there (myself included) that sometimes struggle with the words of others having an effect on us.

One thing that we all are aware of is that we as people are always going to talk for as long as we're able to. The ability to talk and express ourselves is truly one of life's biggest gifts. I personally see it as an even bigger gift when a person is able to use their words in a positive manner that helps in uplifting others. When it comes to the things that I personally want to hear, positive reinforcement and energies are probably at the top of the list for me personally. I think that most of us would rather hear the good things that people talk about, but we're also aware of the fact that many of us speak a lot of negativity out into the world. Don't you just love the dynamic that is positive and negative energies? It is like they are so different, yet one in the same also. Though many of us strive to focus on the more positive messages and aspects of life, we can't deny that for as long as we're alive and breathing that the negative messages will always be out there being spread. Regardless of how positive of a person you may be, you're going to have to hear some negativity via other people at times. As I stated earlier in this post, there are just some aspects of life that we are going to be unable to avoid, and this happens to be one of them. Now stopping ourselves from hearing negative things may be near impossible to do, but we can choose to not allow these things to affect us. This is where the selective hearing that is the theme behind this topic comes into play.

When people hear the term "selective hearing", they probably think that doesn't make much sense since we don't always have the choice to selecting the things we hear. Being able to choose what we choose to listen to in a literal sense isn't what we're aiming for here. We want to be able to train our minds to be able to react in a positive manner to the good things that we hear and vice versa, we want to be able to not react at all to the negativity that is often spewed by others. In essence, instead of literally picking and choosing what you hear from others, you're rather making a choice as to how to react to what you hear. Think of this as an example; imagine that one day you're hanging out with a friend or someone that you're close to that care about you. While you're with this person, you find that they constantly shower you with compliments and positive traits that may personify the person that you are. These are the kinds of things that you want to hear right? Now on the flip side, imagine you find yourself around someone that tells you something that another person said about you that isn't good or positive. Now their intentions behind telling you are not what we're focusing on here, but regardless if those intentions were good or bad, anything bad about yourself is someone that you're likely not going to want to hear. Because the society that we're living in thrives off of negative energies, most of us react more to the negative things that we hear compared to the positive. The selective hearing that I'm referring to comes into play when you make the choice to not allow yourself to react to the negative. Again, you may not be able to control what you hear, but you can control how you react to what you hear.

Now I know that there are probably many of you that already implement the practice of having selective hearing. However, for those of us that may struggle with this, there is some hope. In order to not allow what others say to affect you, you have to learn how to think before you react. Many of us hear things that you don't always fully understand, and we're ready to fly off the handle without knowing the true meaning behind something. So instead of always choosing to react first, try taking in what you hear first instead of reacting. Now I'm about to sound like a broken record, but I'm probably going to repeat the importance of developing a strong mind until I'm old and gray. If you truly want to be able to have the power over how you react to the things you hear, you have to focus on training your mind to first process what you hear. I've mentioned this multiple times on here, but some people intentionally say things to get others all riled up if they know that they're able to. We don't want to be the kind of people that let everything that we hear whether it is good or bad affect us. We want to be the kind of people that are able to process things, and then rather than reacting with emotions, we are able to pick and choose how we want to react based on the situation at hand. Keep in mind that for as long as you're alive, people are always going to say things about you. People are always going to have an opinion on you and the things that you do. Though you can't stop these things, you can combat against them by choosing to be selective of what you listen to. This definitely isn't an easy feat, but it is something that we can work on becoming better at.

Well I think that about wraps up this topic. Hopefully I was able to express my thoughts in a way that was understandable. This has once again been another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I'd like to thank everyone once again that comes by to give these topics a look. As I always close these out with, I hope that there was some meaning and understanding that was able to be gained from this. For those that have any feedback or comments, please feel free to leave them. You can also hit me up on my Twitter handle @BradrickH if you want to. I hope everyone has been enjoying the weekend so far, and I hope you all have an even greater upcoming week ahead. The temps are starting to heat up, so lets try and enjoy this weather before it starts get too hot to enjoy. I'll see you all in the next topic. Stay encouraged and take care of yourselves. Peace!

©2018 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.