Brad H.'s Perspective: July 2021

Saturday, July 31, 2021

The Importance Of Not Being Distracted And Focusing On What's Important In Life.

I had a conversation a few nights back with a friend of mine about how much simpler life was back during the era we were growing up in. Not to give away our ages, but we both were born in the 80s, which meant that we spent our teenage years in the 90s. Some may say the reason why we believe life was simpler back then by the sheer idea that we were kids. There could be some truth to that statement; I definitely will not deny it. However, when I bring this subject up to people that were young adults during this particular era of time, most of them agree with the sentiment of me and my friend that I was conversing with recently. I personally believe that one of the biggest reasons as to why life was simpler stems from the belief that the distractions back then weren't as relevant as they are in today's society. Many of the things that the youth of today consider to be normal today was definitely not back then. I do realize that life is constantly changing, and that we as people should always be looking to change and adapt with it. However, I believe that distractions have and are currently affecting our world in a multitude of negative ways. I believe that the constant distractions have ulterior motives behind them, which is why I believe that it is pertinent for us to understand the importance of not allowing distractions to deter us from what's important in life.

Hello once again folks! It is I, Brad H. back to present you all another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I am here to once again bring my perspective on a topic that I feel would be beneficial towards helping us in this life. I know that I have been away for a few weeks, but I hope that you all are doing well. Before we get into this week's topic, I want to briefly talk about the NBA Finals that recently took place. In the last soapbox, I gave my prediction for who I thought would win the finals. I predicted that the Milwaukee Bucks would be victorious, and they indeed were. However, I will admit that after the first two games that I was a bit concerned as to whether they would pull it off or not. One of my buddies texted me and said that whichever team won on the road first would win the entire series. The Bucks were able to win first on the road, so I suppose he was right about that. At any rate I thoroughly enjoyed the finals this year. It felt more like a real finals this year compared to last season where they used the bubble format. I am extremely happy for Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks. I've always liked how he carried himself. I'm also happy for Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday. Those guys definitely deserve all the adoration that they've received. Now that the NBA is done, we can begin to shift our focus to the NFL! It will be here very soon ladies and gents! Well that is all I have to say about that, so lets go ahead and get more into the importance of not being distracted.

There are a couple of questions that we must address before we get more into this week's topic. First off, what are distractions? The official definition that I found is "a thing that prevents someone from giving attention to something else". Now that is an official definition that I happen to agree with, but what could be entailed as a distraction is subjective to whom you ask. That being said, we all have different forms of distractions. It is up to us as individuals to pinpoint what are distractions to our lives. The next question I want to address is what is important in life? As with what could be defined as a distraction, this is also a question that every single person has to find out for themselves. We all have different priorities when it comes to how we view life, and I personally don't want anyone to think that I'm trying to speak for everyone when it comes to my viewpoints on this. Though we may all think and behave differently in our approach to life, we all deal with distractions. We also all have things in life that are important to us. I'm coming from a more general perspective with this, as I try and do with the majority of the topics that are covered here. So find what your distractions are, as well as what are the things that you may consider to be important in life.

I started this topic off by giving my perspective on how much simpler life was in past decades and how we as people have become more distracted over time. The level of distraction is this word is so powerful that it is difficult to get most people to sit still and watch a movie for a couple of hours. Over the course of time, life has changed so much, and we as people have changed and adapted to it. Now I am a firm believer that change and being adaptable is important. However, and I think I may have pointed this out in a previous topic, but changing and adapting isn't always for the best. Again, much of this comes down to personal perspective, but generally speaking, the constant distractions that are being hurled at us daily have caused many of us to lose focus. For example, I believe that the majority of mainstream news outlets push a narrative. Now there is nothing wrong with having a narrative, but shouldn't the main goal be to inform the people and then allow them to form their own conclusions? Many of you may not agree with me on this, but a lot of what is being shown in the media is aimed to keep most of us distracted from the more important things that are going on. I won't get into details with that, but I think that most of you probably get where I am coming from. That being said, these distractions have a purpose to serve, and I don't believe that it's a purpose that benefits us.

Now I stated earlier that it is subjective to an individual deems as being important in their life. However, one thing that I think that nearly everyone can agree with when it comes to life is the relationships we have with the people in our lives. I believe that one of the biggest things that makes up who we are as people is our relationships with others. I believe from my perspective that distractions keep many of us from remembering what really matters in life. I recently watched a popular film that came out a couple of years back called "Us". I'm not going to spoil anything for those that have yet to see this film, but there was a scene from that movie that totally coincides with what is important in life when it comes to family. There is going to come a time in all of our lives where we're going to have to come to face with something that many of us would rather not even talk about. I won't go into that because I know you all know what I'm talking about. Don't allow distractions, whatever they may be to keep you from focusing on what's important. Don't be one of those people that waits until it is too late to express how you feel about those you care for. Remember that there is much more to life than the news, social media and other distractions. We have to develop a mentality of being able to enjoy all that life has to offer, but also being able to keep those things in their proper context in the hierarchy of life.

Well that is all I got for you all this time around. I hope that you all found this topic to be one that you found relevant. Thank you all once again for coming through for another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! If any of you would like to leave any comments or feedback, you can do so in the comment section. You can also hit me up on Twitter if you'd like @BradrickH. I hope that you all enjoy the rest of your weekend. We are headed into a new month in the next few hours. The year is flying by like they all seem to do now. I'll end by saying don't be distracted, and keep your focus on what's important.

Sunday, July 4, 2021

The Importance Of Accepting The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.

Anyone that has lived long enough will truly understand that life can literally be the equivalent of a roller coaster ride. There are going to be an extensive set of highs and lows, as well ups and downs that come along with navigating through life. There will be moments where you feel like you are coasting steadily, and you'll quickly have something happen that causes you to feel as if you've taken a fast curve on a coaster. These are just a few comparisons of how the twist and turns of life can affect us. There are some of us in the world that understand that this is how life operates. However, there are also people that may know that this is how life is, but they're also not always willing to accept it. In saying this, I am referencing people that are able to handle the good that comes along with life, but may not be so capable at coping whenever the bad creeps in. I'm not here to judge anyone, and I myself will definitely admit that I haven't always been the best role model when it comes to handling life. However, what I do know is that while gaining an acceptance of certain things that correlate with life can be a daunting endeavor to partake, we as people will never truly be whole unless we put in the effort toward acceptance. Life is full of the good, the bad, and the ugly, and I believe that it is very importance to us to accept all of these phases.

What's going on folks? This is your boy Brad H. back to bring you all another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I am here for another topic that will hopefully serve as a bit of inspiration for us all to progress and maintain. I hope that all has been good and well in your life since the last topic. So for my soapbox this week before getting into this week's topic, I want to give my opinion on the NBA Finals that will be coming up soon. After tonight's game six between the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks, we have the representatives for each conference. For the West is the Phoenix Suns, and the Milwaukee Bucks closed out the Hawks tonight to represent the East. First off, I think most of us can agree that we probably didn't see this as the match up that would be featured in the NBA Finals. I think most people probably predicted the Brooklyn Nets to come out of the East, and there were a host of teams that were favorites in the West that others may have considered. So we have Milwaukee and Phoenix playing to become the NBA Champions. I really have no stake in this as neither team is one that I root for. However, I will say that I will be pulling for the Milwaukee Bucks to take it all. I just think that after several years of coming up short in making the finals, this will be the year they take it all the way. Of course injuries play a factor, and we've seen enough of that already. I just hope that we get a great NBA Finals that is a memorable one for years to come. I would love to hear those of you that enjoy basketball picks. So with all that being said, lets go ahead and talk about the importance of accepting the aspects of life that are the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The good, the bad, and the ugly! Before we get to the main theme of the importance of being able to accept all of these aspects of life, we have to address a few disclaimers first. To begin with, what is deemed as good, bad or ugly is something that we all have to define for ourselves first and foremost. No one can see your life in the same way that you do, so it's important for everyone to define what these things mean to us personally. What I believe to be good for my life may not be viewed in the same way by someone else. The same goes for what some may consider to be the bad and the ugly aspects of life. Secondly, as I pointed out earlier, anything that I bring up here isn't intended to be judgemental or imply that I have it all figured out. Like I stated previously, I will admit that I am someone that doesn't always handle issues the best. The main goal with this particular topic is to identify why it is important for us to make the effort to accept these things. One of the frequent things that I, as well as many of you may notice is that many people accept certain things and choose to ignore others. I think that we're doing ourselves a disservice in the long run by not looking as all areas, and that is what this week's topic will mainly touch upon.

Now begin lets do a virtual raise of hands as a response to the question that I'm about to ask. Of course I'm just kidding; please do not raise your hands. Besides, I'm pretty sure that many of you wouldn't have done it anyway, and I honestly can't blame anyone for not doing so. Now the question that I want to pose here is this: how many of you acknowledge when something good happens for you, but you ignore whenever something bad happens? So lets say that you get a promotion at a job and you put it all over social media, but if you happen to lose a job or take some kind of setback in your life, you'd rather not let that be known? I think that a good majority of us if we're being honest will admit that we're guilty of this. There is absolutely nothing wrong giving credence to the good that happens in your life, but how are we supposed to cope whenever the bad and ugly comes. This is something that I believe many of us struggle with in our lives. I believe that much of this stems from the way we've been conditioned to think and process things in our society. Take the news for example: how often does the news show all aspects of what is happening? There is a narrative that is pushed in order to make people think a certain way. Often times, whatever is good or viewed as something that will increase ratings will be shown, but the bad is often pushed to the back.

There are some things that happen in life that we cannot change regardless of how much we'd like to do so. There are some things in life that you just have to learn how to live with regardless of how good, bad, or downright ugly they may be. This is ultimately what brings me to the main point of this topic: the importance of accepting the good, the bad, and the ugly. As I pointed to earlier, though we may embrace and accept the good things in life, the bad and ugly is also a part of life as well. Though the bad and ugly are the aspects of life that we'd prefer not to embrace, there is no getting around the cold fact. The fact is that there is no way to accept one aspect and leave out the others. We have to teach ourselves to embrace them all regardless of how hard it may be to do so. Now you can be a person that embraces the good and try and tune out the bad. However, when you leave out of a room and turn off the light, everything that is in the room is still going to be there, right? Making the effort to tune out the bad and the ugly may be a short term feel good, but it doesn't change the fact that there are still there. It is important to accept all aspects that come along with life, and I personally believe that in doing so that we mold ourselves into more well-rounded individuals.

Well that is what I got for you all this time! I hope that I was able to bring this topic out in a manner in which was both relatable and understandable. I would like to once again thank everyone that stopped by for another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I sincerely appreciate all of the support that you all have shown me over the years. If there is any feedback that you all would like to leave, please feel free to do so in the comment box. You can also hit me on Twitter @BradrickH if you'd like to connect on there. Well I'm going to sign off for this time, so I'll see you all on the next topic. Have a wonderful and safe 4th of July weekend. Take care everyone!