Things Take Off At Different Times For Us All.

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The idea of people comparing themselves to other people is something that has existed since maybe the beginning of time. There is no way for me to truly know how long this has been a normal practice, but what I do know is that it is something that has existed since I've been living in this world. I'm certain that there are a slew of reasons why so many of us as people compare ourselves to others. Probably one of the biggest reasons that I can think of off the top of my head comes from the social constructs that have been established in this world. For example, there is are beliefs that exist within our world that a person needs to be married by a certain age, have children by a certain age, and retire by a certain age. These are just a couple of examples out of many that stem from the social constructs that so many people follow. Now I'm in no way saying that everyone believes this, but these social norms that have been placed upon us say that you need to have done various things by a specific time period, and in the event that you have not achieved some of these things by that specific time period, then something must be wrong with you. As I have gotten older and gained a greater understanding of this world and how people think, it has become increasingly difficult for me to even imagine why so many of us conform ourselves to these social norms. My reasoning for this is due to the idea that most of us realize by now that we're all unique individuals that have different upbringings and outlooks on life. If this is the case, why exactly do so many of us allow these social norms to dictate how we live our lives? Though it may be difficult to not compare ourselves to other people, the comparing of yourself to anyone in general is never a wise thing once you reach a certain age. We have to realize that everyone faces different obstacles in life, so naturally things will take off for us at different times.

Hey, what is going on peeps? This is your main man Brad H. back once again to bring you all another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! How is everyone doing out there? We are still anew in the year 2019, so I hope that those resolutions that those of you that still do make them are going well. So for my soapbox section of this week, I'm going to briefly discuss more football. We all know by now that my Dallas Cowboys took an L to the Los Angeles Rams last week. I was also wrong about the Houston Texans vs. Indianapolis Colts game that I brought up two week ago in the last post. We got the AFC and NFC championship games taking place tomorrow, so I'm going to quickly give my prediction on what I see happening. So we have the New England Patriots taking on the Kansas City Chiefs, and the New Orleans Saints going up against the Los Angeles Rams. Out of these two games, the only one that I feel fairly confident about is the Chiefs and Patriots. I'll be rooting for the Chiefs cause I don't like the Patriots, but I believe that New England is going to win. They already played during the regular season in what was an awesome game that the Patriots nudged out in a 43-40 victory. I just feel like their experience will propel them into another Super Bowl appearance. As for the Saints and Rams, I really don't know who is going to win this game. They also played one another in the regular season, and the Saints were victorious at that time. The Rams have such an advanced offense in my opinion, so it is going to take a big defensive effort by anyone to beat them. Their offense totally had my Cowboys defense gassed out. I don't care for either of these teams, so it doesn't matter to me who wins. If I had a gun to my head however, I would probably pick the Saints to win. We will see what happens tomorrow, but it should be exciting to watch. Man it is so hard to believe that football season is almost over with. Seems like it goes by faster and faster each year. With all that being said, lets go ahead and get into this week's discussion of things taking off at different times for us all.

Now I've already brought up the idea of people comparing themselves to other people, and how the society that we live in has established these social constructs that the majority of people follow when it comes to living their lives. There is another word that is a key element when it comes to comparing ourselves to others. That word is "patience". I personally believe that patience or the lack thereof is one of the main reasons why people feel the need to compare themselves to others. I'm going to touch more on patience later on in this topic. Now I'm not going to be a hypocrite and act as if I don't ever compare myself to other people. I believe that it is totally unrealistic for anyone to say that they've never compared themselves to another person. That being said, there are different contexts that comparing ourselves to others can be put into. Simply put, I believe that a person can compare themselves to other in either a constructive way, or a nonconstructive way. Now these two comparisons within themselves can be totally subjective when it comes to what is considered constructive and nonconstructive. As I see it, constructive comparison is when a person compares themselves to another person in a manner in which it inspires the person doing the comparing to strive to be better. As an example, think of people in your life that you admire and look up to. These are people that may have a skill or personality trait that you admire. The manner in which they live their lives may be inspiration for you to want better for your own life. Athletes compare themselves to other athletes in their particular sports all the time. I believe many of them use this form comparison as a way to work harder to reach the top of their sport. Again, constructive criticism isn't only limited to sports. Like I mentioned earlier, it can be related to anything or anyone that inspires you in a positive manner.

Now onto what I deem as the downside of comparing ourselves to others, and the heart of what I want to get across in this week's topic. From my perspective, comparing ourselves to other in a nonconstructive way is what I brought up earlier in regards to the social constructs of life. I believe it is both nonconstructive and unwise to compare your life situation to others when it comes to meeting the expectations of society. Let me paint a picture for you all of what I'm referring to when I say this. Think of two people that are friends and have been friends for a long time. Lets say that one of these people is in a relationship and decides to get married. Now the other friend that isn't yet married could very well be supportive and happy for their friend. However, the society that we live in probably would beg the question to the unmarried friend; now when are you going to get married? If this person begins to hear this enough, they may begin to question and wonder when they're time to get married is coming. Furthermore, if they're not strong enough to ignore these type of questions, they may easily find themselves comparing themselves to their married friend, which could ultimately lead to jealousy and resentment. Keep in mind that this is just an example that I'm setting up, so hopefully you all don't think that I'm saying everyone thinks this way. The point of this example is to establish what I believe is a form of nonconstructive comparison. From my perspective, this is the type of comparison towards others that we need to try and cut out of our lives. I'm going to give my opinion on why next.

Now remember when I brought up the word patience earlier, and how so many of us lack having it? In my opinion, the lack of patience and comparing ourselves to others go hand in hand. For those of us that struggle in the arena of comparing our lives to that of others, we have to exercise some patience and understand that things takes off for us at different times. It's not meant for all of us to accomplish things at the same time, otherwise there would be no need for the individual struggles that we have to endure. We have to learn how to view our lives as if we're skydiving. I've never went skydiving before, but I do know that unless some type of malfunction happens during the jump, the parachute will open up. Everybody's parachutes don't always open at the same time, which means that none of us will always accomplish our goals at the same time. Always try and be happy for others when you see their parachutes opening, and know that as long as you are moving towards better things in your life, your chute will open up eventually. We have to have patience though when it comes to these kinds of things. I understand that the world we live in today doesn't push the idea of having patience. It shows in how so many people today want everything so fast. That's another topic for another day. So in closing, lets try and exercise more patience. Have the belief that things will work out for us in due time. Be happy for others when good things happen for them. Finally, if you have the opportunity to be a positive part of someone else's journey, do no hesitate to do so. I believe that playing a role in helping others gives us a kind of satisfaction that not much else in this world could. Whenever you may feel as if things aren't going your way in this life, and the opposite is happening for others, remember that things take off at different times for us all.

Well that is all that I got for you good people this go round. Like I always mention before signing off, I'd like to thank all of you that once again stopped by for another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I hope that there was some meaning and understanding that was able to be taken away from this. Also, if this post inspired you, or if you gained anything valuable from it, please let me know down below in the comment section. You can also connect with me on Twitter @BradrickH if you'd like. I hope you all have an enjoyable rest of your weekend. I know there is a lot of cold weather and snow out there, so be safe in whatever you're doing this weekend. I'll see you all in the next topic, so until then, take care everyone!

©2019 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

Are You The Driver Or Passenger Of Your Life?

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Control; a pretty powerful word if you ask me. What exactly is control, and how does it affect our lives? The official definition that I came across in regards to control is "the power to influence or direct people's behavior or the course of events." We all have moments and individual aspects in and of our lives where we want to have control over various things. However, I think that most of us know by now that there are some situations in this life that we're not going to be able to control, period. For example, we're all aware that when it comes to handling a vehicle, you're either the driver or the passenger of that vehicle. A passenger of a vehicle has very little say over what can happen while they're riding in that vehicle. Then we have the driver of a vehicle. Of course the driver is the person at the wheel and operating the vehicle. They are the individual that decides how fast to drive, when to turn, etc. Now while a driver may have the most control when it comes to operating a vehicle in comparison to a passenger, a wise driver also realizes that there are certain elements of being behind the wheel that they have no control over. A single driver for example has no control over what the other drivers around them are doing, which ultimately means that regardless of how well a driver is performing at driving, an accident is always only an unwise driver away from happening. Now with that being said, regardless the level of control a driver may have on other drivers, a driver still will have more control than a passenger does. From my perspective, this same comparison can be applied when it comes to our lives. Some of us are majority passengers when it comes our lives, while some are the drivers. Though the two may intermix at times depending on whatever a situation calls for, by in large, most of us are either one or another in general. We are officially in 2019, which means that a new year is upon us. For 2019, are you going to be the driver or the the passenger of your life?

Happy New Year everyone! This is Brad H. back on deck once again, and I'd like to welcome everyone to the first installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective' for the year 2019. We are officially in a new year, so this is the time of the year where many of us try and reset and use the new year as a clean slate. I'm certain that I've mentioned what I'm about to say on here before, but in recent years, I have gotten away from the whole new years resolutions thing. I'm not against making them, and I think making them gives people something to strive for. I just now believe more in making daily affirmations that can empower us. That said, whatever method or outlook that anyone may have towards the new year is totally fine with me. I just hope that we all do our best to make 2019 one of the best years of our lives. I know that sounds pretty cliche, but we also have to keep in mind that the more of these new years that we're able to see means that the chances of there being more years behind us than ahead of us increases. Just something to keep in mind. So before getting into this week's topic, I want to talk briefly about the NFL playoff games happening today. We have the Indianapolis Colts facing off against the Houston Texans, and the Seattle Seahawks coming to Texas to take on my Dallas Cowboys. I think that these are two quality games to kick off opening weekend of the NFL playoff run. With the Colts and Texans, we have two teams from the same division, which means that this will be their third time meeting this season. The season series was split between the two with the margin of victory being three points in both games. I really don't know who is going to win this game, but I give the edge to Houston with the game being on their home turf. It also wouldn't surprise me in the least if the Colts pulled it off. That defense is much improved by Indy, and Andrew Luck has gotten better as the season progressed. Now with Dallas and Seattle, I see another potentially good game. These two teams met in the regular season also, with Seattle winning 24-13. That game took place in Seattle, so with the game being on Dallas's home turf this time around, I expect the Cowboys to be more competitive. Being that I'm a Cowboys fan, I am definitely rooting for them to win. However, I do believe Seattle will likely win this game. They are the more experienced team, and Russell Wilson is more trustworthy than Dak Prescott in these situations. It's the playoffs though, so anything can happen. Lets enjoy this playoff run, and see how it all unfolds. Alright, now that I've gotten on my soapbox for a bit, it is time to move forward with the topic for the week.

Now this is the section where I normally give a disclaimer and address how I came to the topic before addressing it. However, I'm using it this time to announce that I will no longer be giving a disclaimer or addressing why or how I arrived at the topic for the week. I planned on doing this two years ago, and if you go back in my entries and view the first post from January of 2017, you'll see that I mentioned this. I ultimately didn't follow through with it, and much of that was due to the fact that I felt I would be cheating the readers if I didn't give them insight into why I think the way that I do in regards to these topics. I also wanted to try and give out quality information, and at the time I felt the only way to do that would be to keep the posts at a certain length. After pondering on it for a bit the last few days, I decided that it is more important for me to try and get my point across rather than focusing on how I arrived at a topic. I also feel that there is no need to give a disclaimer before discussing the topics I come up with. Every single person that reads these posts are smart and intelligent people that don't need me repeating the same thing in every post. So with that being said, the standard seven paragraphs that I normally use to cover my topics will be reduced to six. In the event where I feel a certain topic needs more detail and depth beyond what I may have already mentioned, I'll use seven paragraphs. As of right now, that is only change that I plan on making to this site in 2019. The format will be the same, the length will just hopefully be shorter. I hope this is a welcome change for those of you that have been with me for awhile. Besides, I'm one of those people that believes it is often better to make things a little more convenient and easier when possible. A lot of you out there are likely busy people, and the probability of you staying and reading something shorter is a lot more higher than something that is long and drawn on. So now that I've gotten that announcement out of the way, lets talk more about the topic of whether you're a driver or passenger of your life.

We already understand the setup of how a driver and passenger works in regards to operating a vehicle. But how exactly does this equate to our lives? What are the qualities and attributes that define whether you're being the driver or passenger of your life? I believe that isn't a single answer to define this, and this is something that I think is totally subjective to individual thinking. I also believe as I mentioned earlier that this is one of those topics where there are times when these things will overlap with one another. This makes this one of those tricky topics, however, with that being said, I will give my own personal perspective on what I think of this. Simply put, I believe that a driver is more of a leader, and a passenger is more of the follower type. Again, I'm not implying that being a follower is a bad thing, but I do feel that we all should have a degree of leadership when it comes to our own lives. When I think of an individual that has more of a driver mentality when it comes to their life, I think of someone that isn't easily swayed by what other people think. The individual with the driver mentality is likely to maintain a level of control despite certain circumstances being out of their control. When I think of a passenger, I think of the word passive. I liken a person with the passenger attribute as someone that probably listens a lot to the opinions of others. Not saying that it is bad to listen to what others have to say, but there is a difference between listening objectively to what others say and being easily influenced by others. A person with more of a passenger mentality also probably allows others to run their lives in the sense that they constantly do things that they may not necessarily want in order please others. Now again, I want to stress that I'm in no way saying that being a driver is good, and being a passenger is bad. All of this is totally subjective, so everyone is free to form their own interpretation of this.

Now that I've given some examples on what I define as being attributes that a driver and passenger are equivalent to, I want to explain why I think it is more important to be a driver. Like I have mentioned several times already, there are going to be times when you are going to have to be a passenger. There is no way around that. However, I think that most of us should aim to have more driver qualities. From my perspective, we already live in a world that is filled with passengers in the sense that so many people don't really think for themselves. People nowadays are influenced by the media more than ever due to the constant consumption of information that we're being fed. From my perspective, this creates a world where we have more followers than leaders, that isn't a good thing when you really think about it. I touched on it earlier, but there are some circumstances that will always be out of your hands. However, we as people always have the ability to control what we think and do. You don't have to always follow what the masses think and do, you can seek out information on your own and form your own conclusion. You never have to be subjected to the thoughts and opinions of others. You have the ability to view yourself in your own light and know that the light in which you view yourself is the most important because you're the one that in your own skin. These are a few reasons why I feel it is more important to be a driver rather than a passenger. You always want to have the feeling that despite the various situations and circumstances that happen that are out of your control, you always are in control of your own life. I want to state again before I close out that having passenger qualities doesn't mean you're a bad person. We all have passenger qualities from time to time. However, with us being in a new year, lets try and focus on being becoming drivers that are in control of our lives.

Well I'm going to go ahead and close out this opening post for 2019. As always, a big thanks goes out to everyone that joined me for another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! That is something that I'm always going to say. I also hope that there was some meaning and understanding that was able to be gained from this. Feel free to leave any comments or feedback in the comment section, and you can also connect with me on Twitter if you'd like at the handle @BradrickH. I hope that 2019 has started off right for you all so far, and Happy New Year to you all again. The Texans and Colts game is starting in a few, so I'm going to go ahead and sign off. I'll see you all in the next one. Peace!

©2019 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.