Why Your Intentions Outweigh The Benefits Of What You're Trying To Achieve.

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I believe that to be alive is to have ambitions. Living a life without having anything to strive towards is an empty existence from my perspective. Saying that everyone has certain ambitions in life is something that most people can probably agree with. We may all have different types of goals that we're hoping to reach in life, but the fact remains that everybody has ambitions. I believe that every goal has a journey that is included within that goal. A goal often isn't reached in a single day, and there are many that will take an extended length of time to reach. One of my favorite quotes is "It's not the destination, it's the journey." Now that quote can mean different things to different people. However, my personal interpretation of it is that the journey towards what we're aiming for has to be one rooted in truth. All of this boils down to a person's intentions when it comes to what goals they're hoping to obtain. Many people don't take into account how important our reasons for why we do the things we do. I personally think that this is something isn't addressed enough, and I think it is hurtful to us in the long run toward our goals. Intentions matter, and the intentions that are behind what we do can often outweigh the benefits of what we're hoping to gain. 

Hey, what's going on everyone? This is Brad H. back once again, and welcome to another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I am back to give my perspective on a topic that I think would be beneficial to our lives. I hope that things are going well for you wherever you are, and thank you for joining me again. So for my soapbox this week, I have to say that I am pretty excited! We have the NBA Playoffs kicking off today! I am currently watching the last game for the night, which is the Denver Nuggets and Portland Trailblazers. There were some pretty good games earlier today. We had the Milwaukee Bucks taking down the Miami Heat in an overtime game. The next game saw the Dallas Mavericks beat the Los Angeles Clippers. Then we had the Boston Celtics lose to the Brooklyn Nets. If you are an NBA fan, you have got to love playoff basketball. I'm not going to give my predictions on all the series because that would take up too much time. I will just say now that I believe Milwaukee, the Clippers, Brooklyn and Denver will probably win their first round series. We have another full day of games on tomorrow as well! If you are a basketball fan, I would love to hear some of your predictions in the comments. Well I don't want to keep this long, so lets go on and get into why I believe intentions outweigh the benefits.

 

Now before we get into intentions and how they have a correlation to goals and achievements, I want to start off by mentioning that this topic isn't meant to demean and question anyone's motives for what they do. Everybody has to define for themselves what their reasons and motivations are for the decisions they make. It's a personal matter that must be defined by you as an individual. The idea that I have with this topic is that I want to address why I personally feel that intentions are so important. We all have intentions, and I think it is more pertinent to focus on those for the reasons and examples that I will be mentioning throughout this topic. Also, all of what I'm going to bring up is my own personal perspective. I'm in no way trying to imply that what I say is law when it comes to this topic. I just hope that I am able to give a perspective that some, if not all of you that read this can identify with. I have a feeling that most of you will be able to relate to this, so lets go ahead and begin with intentions first and foremost. 

Intentions for the most part are the reasons as to why we attempt to do something. You can also view it as a motivation for wanting to do something. As I pointed out earlier, we all have intentions and motives when it comes to why we chose to do certain things. The kicker with intentions is just like much of life in general, there can be both good and bad behind them. Even more of a kicker is that sometimes there is a grey area that is somewhere in the middle between good and bad. It can be confusing to determine, which is why I stated that everyone has to define their reasons and motivations for the choices we make. Now the reason I pointed out both the good and bad that comes with intentions is that there are many people in this world that have bad intentions behind things they do. For example, we are all aware of people that will help someone else, but their reasons for helping may not be entirely pure. They may be doing something for someone else in order to gain something instead of doing it with good intentions. I personally believe that this is something we've all been guilty of at sometime or another. However, this is is something that we have to look towards changing if it applies, and the reasons as to why I think we do is what drove me to bring this topic up in this week's edition. 

Now you can be someone that may not always have the best of intentions behind what you do, and you can very well still have things work out for you. That is just the reality of life sometimes. However, from my personal perspective, more times than not, there will often be some sort of retribution in the long run from not having good intentions. This is primarily why I feel that our intentions outweigh any possible benefits that come along with what we're trying to do. I believe that if your heart and your mind isn't in the right place when it comes to making decisions, whatever you may be attempting will not be successful long term. I can say that I would personally rather have something not work out for me if I knew that my intentions behind what I was attempting were good. You can call it karma, the law of attraction, etc, but the reality is that you will likely end up playing yourself when you have bad intentions. I had a conversation with my sister a couple of weeks ago, and I can recall telling her that your intentions are much more important than the benefits a person is hoping to receive. That is ultimately led me to write this topic. I'll end by saying don't play yourself when it comes to your intentions. Make sure they are aligned with whatever you're trying to do. That's the best way to live and be at peace from my perspective. 

 

That is all that I got for this round folks! I would like to thank you once again for joining me for another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I hope that I was able to convey the message from this topic in a manner that was easy to relate to. If you have any comments or feedback that you would like to leave, please feel free to do so in the comment box. You can also connect with me on Twitter @BradrickH if you'd like. I truly appreciate you all, and I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend. I'm going to sign off and finish watch this game, so till next time, peace out and take care. See you all on the next topic!

 

 ©2021 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

We're Just Small Fish In A Gigantic Ocean (Stay Humble And Make An Impact While You're Here).

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I'm of the belief that every single person that is living matters in some way, shape, or form. You may feel at times that you do not matter to the world in general, but regardless of who you are, you likely matter to at least one person. Now although I'm a firm believer that we're all important as individuals, I also believe that no one person is truly better than the next person. It's kinda unfortunate that I have to even bring this up, however, we cannot deny the fact that the society we're living in has painted a false image of how important and relevant to the world that a person should be. We look at these television personalities and celebrities, and often feel that because these people are being broadcast to a wide range of people that they somehow matter more than those who may not have that kind of exposure. Even everyday average people these days have a superiority complex going on. People that may be more well off than others talk and look down upon those that may be less fortunate that they are. Now I'm not saying that every person that is well off thinks this way, but most of us have found ourselves being around people that feel they're better than others regardless of what they feel they're better at. I'm going to attempt to debunk this myth of betterment in this week's topic, and hopefully show why we should always try and stay humble, because at the end of the day, we're all just small fish in a gigantic ocean.

Hello once again ladies and gentlemen. It's ya boy Brad H. back at it once again, and I'd like to welcome everyone to another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I hope that everyone has been doing well and maintaining since the last write up. If that hasn't been the case for you, stay strong and keep on holding your head up. As with the normal standard here, I've come to give my perspective for the week on various topics and thoughts that I think about regularly. So how has everything been going with you guys? A lot of wild things have been going on in the world as of late. One thing that I talked about in the last post was the NBA playoffs. We had a good ole I-10 rivalry that happened here in the Lone Star State between the Houston Rockets and my San Antonio Spurs. Now although I'm a Spurs fan first, I do like the Houston Rockets as well. Obviously I wanted to see the Spurs go on and advance to play the Golden State Warriors, but it probably wouldn't have bothered me too much if they happened to lose to the Rockets. However, as much as I hate to say, I think that the Spurs are going to have their work cut out for them going up against the Warriors. The Warriors have truly been on point this entire playoff tournament, and I honestly in my heart feel that the general public wants to see another Cavaliers vs. Warriors NBA Finals. I'm personally not a part of that group, but I also understand that the NBA is a business where ratings and revenue matters. I guess we'll just have to see how this all ends up playing out. It should be a good series, so Go Spurs Go! Hope everyone that likes basketball has been enjoying the playoffs thus far. Now that I've talked about that for a bit, lets go ahead and talk about this week's topic of how I feel that we're all just small fish in a gigantic ocean.

As I always aim to do before getting more into my thoughts for the week, I'd like give a disclaimer and say that everyones individual viewpoints will always vary. My objective here is isn't to focus on what may be considered right or wrong, but rather to hopefully inspire the people that read to think about various topics from a different approach than they normally would. I totally understand if my my viewpoints don't register with others, and any perspective other than my own is always welcome here. As always, the goal that I'm looking to achieve here is to first inspire myself, and then hopefully through the process of writing out my thoughts, inspire others as well. As for insight on how this topic came to my mind for this week, I have to give total credit to my younger sister. She and I were having a discussion on the phone a few days ago, and she mentioned something about small fish in a big ocean. That discussion got me to thinking about how so many people these days feel that they're better than others, and I thought the whole small fish in the ocean is a decent analogy to hopefully get my point across. I want to thank my sister again for the inspiration, and this just goes to show how the interactions with others can often be the spark for motivating us. Before moving forward with this week's topic, I want to stress that I'm in no way conveying that we shouldn't see ourselves as people of value and worth. I'm simply hoping to get others to see that there is a bigger picture at work that is happening.

So what exactly does the small fish in a big ocean analogy refer to? I'm pretty sure that all of you probably get it, but for the sake of trying to get a point across, I'll go ahead and talk about it. I personally see the oceans and large bodies of water that occupy this Earth as being similar to humans and how we interact with the world in general. The planet that we're living on in gigantic, and the same applies to these large masses of waters. So there are all kind of animals that inhabit these waters right? You have your whales, sharks, etc right? Then you have your smaller fish and sea creatures that are existing out there as well. From my perspective, this can somewhat be equivalent to how we are as humans in regards to the way we look, our races, etc. So there's this entire ocean of creatures out there trying to survive, similar to how we as humans fight for survival as well to a lesser extent. So I want you to think about this; if a shark or another of the more powerful creatures out in the ocean eats one of the smaller creatures that are in the ocean as well, does the entire ocean cease to keep existing? Of course not. The same thing applies to us as humans. When a person dies, the world continues to move forward right? Life will end for all of us eventually, but that doesn't mean that the world won't keep on carrying on. This is exactly why I say that no one is better than anyone else, because regardless of how important someone may be, life will continue to carry on despite that person no longer being here.

I know that me saying all of what I said above sounds like doom and gloom, but it is a true fact that death is just a part of life. None of us will be here forever, which is why I feel it is important to laugh and smile as much as you possibly can. Now that I've gotten the whole small fish and big ocean analogy out of the way, I wanna give my thoughts on what we can do to make ourselves more valuable during our time here on this Earth. First off, keeping a level of humility is important, but I feel the most important way to be valuable is to make an impact on the lives others while you're here. From my perspective, making an impact doesn't mean that you have to be a celebrity, TV personality, or athlete. It doesn't mean that you have to have a lot of money or resources, although having those things can definitely give the people that have obtained those things the ability to have a greater impact. I think that the best way to make an impact means leaving a part of yourself behind for others. If you're a parent, it means leaving the values and teachings that you gave to your kids behind for them to have an impact on the lives of others. If you're an older sibling, it means being a positive role model to your younger sibling. If you're a mentor, it means leaving an imprint on those you're teaching. Having an impact means that you were valuable to the life others. It means that you were able to make someone else life easier, or you were able help that person through the trials they may be facing. Again, regardless of who you may be, you can always have a positive impact on the lives of other people.

Now I feel it is entirely okay for a person to have confidence in themselves and their abilities. However, I feel that many people today confuse confidence with cockiness. It's okay to see yourself as worthy and valuable, but also remember that there is a bigger world outside of the one you're living in. Going back to the ocean analogy, some peoples impact can be like a whale, and some people are similar to sharks, squad, etc. Some people are like regular fish, and some are the smaller creatures in the ocean. However big or important you feel you are, try to focus on leaving a lasting impact. When we look at the television personalties and celebrities, try to remember that they are just humans like we are. As I stated earlier, everyone matters regardless of what people may think. The truth of the matter is that none of us are going to outlive this life that we're in, and we're all going to have to exit here eventually. Just like the soldiers that may be involved in a war; when one of their comrades fall they mourn them, but they continue to press on right? That's exactly how this world is. Life will always carry on. To end this topic, the quote I'm going to leave with comes from Behdad Sami. The quotes goes: "Some people like being a big fish in a small pond, others a ferocious shark in the ocean, I rather be the ocean. In the end, fish die."

Well we've reached the end of this week's topic folks. 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. Even if that may not always be the case of some people, it is totally okay. Your visit and support is still greatly appreciated. If you have any comments or thoughts to share, feel free to leave them for me. Well the weekend is upon us again, and this is Mother's Day weekend. Big shout out to all the mothers out there. I hope you all enjoy your day, and for the people out there that still have your mother in your life, take a little time out of this weekend to spend with your mom. Hope everyone has a great weekend, and I'll see you all in the next post. 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.