The Importance Of Accepting People For Who They Are.

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I believe that the good majority of us have a person or even a group of people in our lives that we would like to see change from. Maybe it's a family member that has a problem with opening up about their issues, and it frustrates you that they're not willing or able to do so. Maybe you have a friend that consistently makes bad choices when it comes to the type of people that choose to date. These are a couple of examples, but the idea of change can pretty much apply to anyone or anything. Now from my own perspective, there are a couple of ways that the desire to see change in others can be viewed from. You can view it from your own perspective, or you can see it from the perspective of the person that you're hoping to see change from. So what do we mean by this, you may wonder? When you look at it from the perspective the other person, you're hoping that they change for their own good. However, when you see it from your own personal perspective, you're hoping that they change for your own reasons. Now there isn't necessarily anything wrong with either way of viewing this, but when you want people to change for your own personal reasons, you're trying to shape a person to be who you want them to be for your own benefit. This is a form of not accepting people for who they are, and it is important to to aim to not being this type of person. 

What's good everybody? This is Brad H. coming through once again to bring you all another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I am here for another week of bringing a topic that I have been pondering on as of late. The aim is to use that topic to hopefully bring us all some wisdom and inspiration to help us to progress in our lives. Hope all has been good and well with you all since the last topic that I wrote about. I brought up in the last topic how hectic things has been as of late from Hurricane Laura. Though things are not entirely back to normal as of yet, they are definitely moving in the right direction towards progression. We've had quite a bit of doom and gloom during this year, but I know that all my fellow sports fans out there were extremely happy about the NFL returning. There were quite a few headlines that we could bring up after week 1, but I want to talk about Tom Brady's debut with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brady had a pretty brutal day with a couple of interceptions thrown, which ultimately contributed to the Bucs losing to the Saints. Of course being in his 40's now, people are already wondering if he is washed up. I believe it is something to wonder, but I also think it is too early to question. I mean there wasn't any preseason this year, so it may take all of the teams a few weeks to get their chemistry down. I'm not a Bucs fan or anything, but the Brady potentially being over the hill headline was one of the biggest from the first week. We shall see if Brady is still elite as the the weeks go on. I just know that I'm glad to see football back. Now that I've gotten on my soapbox for a bit, lets go ahead and talk about the theme of the week; the importance of accepting people for who they are. 

Since this week's topic deals with why it is important to accept people for the way they are, I think it is important to use what was discussed in the opening as a starting point. I briefly touched on in the opening how much of this topic deals with two different perspectives. Those perspectives being your own perspective vs. the perspective of the person that you may be having a hard time accepting. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to see someone you care for change for the better. That's not where we're going with this week's topic. I believe that there is a difference when it comes to wanting to see someone change for the better vs. wanting to see someone change because you may not like aspects of their personality. For example, if you have a friend that is addicted to drugs and their addiction is hindering their life, you're gonna wanna see them change. However, if you have a friend that is quiet and not much of a peoples person, yet you want to see them open up more for your own reasons, this is what I would consider to be the wrong kind of change to expect from that friend. Now there isn't anything wrong with pushing that friend to go out of their comfort zone more, but if it's not in that friend's nature to be that kind of person, expecting them to be someone they're not is wrong. 

Now from my perspective, and I'm sure that most people will agree with me on this, there are a couple of reactions that a person may get from trying to change someone. The first reaction is one of conformity. This is where the person that you want to see change makes an attempt to go along with what you're trying to do. The second reaction is more of a resistance, which is obviously where they don't conform to your whims of change. I want to focus on the conformity aspect. Now lets say you are trying to get a person to change for you, and they happen to try and conform to you. If you're expecting them to be someone that they're not, how long do you think that they'll be able to go along with it before going back to who they truly are? Like it or not, the old saying that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks is a fact. Most people are who they truly are at their core, and the only change that will often happen is the one that make for themselves; not others. Either way whether there is conformity or resistance, you likely won't get the end result that you desire when it comes to changing others. Furthermore, both of these can lead to friction in a relationship, which can ultimately derail everything. Then what? You've probably lost someone that you truly care for because you wouldn't allow them to be themselves. 

So we've arrived at the the point of this week's topic where we sum it all and bring it to a close. Why exactly is it of importance for us to accept people for who they are? From my perspective and besides the obvious that we've already addressed, overloading yourself with what others can be an added burden to your life. There are people in this world that really become entrenched so much in others lives that it affects their mental health. We should be striving to not be like this, but we should also be striving to be tolerant of others. We all have friends and family members that we may not agree with their lifestyles, and there are people that we're close to that more than likely feel the same way about us. You don't want people dictating you and telling you how to live, right? The same logic applies when it comes to others as well. You don't want to add an extra strain to your life because you can't accept others, and you certainly do not want to fall out with someone because you may have controlling tendencies. Again, there is a difference in wanting to intervene when you see trouble vs. pushing for change in part due to your own personal gain. Accept people for who they are, and you'll come to realize how much more your relationships with others will thrive.  

Well that about sums up what I have to say this week, so I'm going to go ahead and sign off for now. Thank you once again to those of you that came by. I hope that there was some meaning and understanding that was able to be taken away from this. If any of you have anything that you'd like to contribute to this topic, please feel free to do so in the comment section. Also, if you're on Twitter and would like to connect with me, you can find me at the handle @BradrickH. This has been another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I hope you all have a great week ahead, and I'll see you all on the next topic. Peace!

©2020 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

The Importance Of Opening Yourself To The Ideas Of Others (Being Tolerant Of The Views Of Others).

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The idea of everyone having different views and opinions from one another has existed since the beginning of time. As individuals with the ability to think and believe whatever you may choose, expecting others to always agree with you isn't plausible. I believe that it is both healthy and natural for people to not always see eye-to-eye. Mankind has never aligned with people always agreeing with one another, and it will always be that way. Now despite the differences of ideas and opinions that exist within our society, in general, people have found a way to coexist with one another. I want to be sure and stress the point of this being generalized, because we all know that there have and will always be instances where disagreements lead to negative outcomes. Now I can't speak for anyone else, and I am solely coming from my own perspective and reality here, but it appears to me that more and more people in the world that we live in today aren't open to hearing the ideas of others. Again, this is a habit that has existed from the beginning of time, but I personally feel that it is something that I see and notice more and more in this era that we're living in. As a people we don't always have to agree with one another. However, being that I'm one that believes in maintaining an open mind, I do feel that it is important for us to always open our minds up to the ideas that others have.

What is going on ladies and gentlemen? Is is your guy Brad H. back once again in the kitchen of wisdom stirring up the the knowledge pot a bit, and I'd like to welcome you all once again to another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I am here for another week to hopefully serve up a dish of inspiration and knowledge that will hopefully help in keeping us all motivated in our daily lives. I hope that all has been going well for everybody out there. I initially was only going to talk about the abysmal Super Bowl game that I endured nearly two weeks ago in this section. However, there was recently a more serious situation that happened recently that I want to acknowledge. As I'm sure mostly everyone knows by now, there was another school shooting that took place a few days ago. The staging ground this time around was in Florida at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. This tragic incident claimed the lives of 17 people in total. I just want to give my thoughts and prayers to those that were lost, as well as their families and loved one. Honestly, what more can there really be said about these events besides they are happening all too often than they should be? I believe that it says a lot about the world that we're living in when young people are so mentally disturbed that they feel they have to resort to these type of acts. I'm not sure what more can be done besides more gun regulations, background checks, mental health checks, etc. What I do know is that it is pretty sad that we live in the kind of world where when people mention that a mass shootings has taken place, and the first thing you wonder is where now? There are a lot of deep rooted issues that have to be addressed to prevent things like this from happening in the future. Again, my thoughts go out to everyone that were lost in this tragic event. That's pretty much my thoughts on this unfortunate incident, so lets go ahead and get into this week's topic of the importance of opening ourselves up to the ideas that others have.

As with the normal disclaimer that I give before addressing any of the topics I discuss, I want to say that we all have different viewpoints and ways of seeing things. The goal here isn't to force my beliefs on anyone else, but rather to hopefully to encourage others to maybe view things in a manner in which they may not have before. You are well within your rights if you happen to disagree with or don't share the same views as I do. Whatever your beliefs or outlook on life may be, I still appreciate those of you that have taken out some time to see what I have to say. Hopefully what I want to address is able to reach someone out there. As for how I arrived at this particular topic, I can't really really point to anything specific besides it just being something that has been on my mind recently. Furthermore, being that I'm trying to focus on becoming a more tolerant and understanding person towards others, I feel that this is a topic that can help me to keep myself accountable towards that goal. There may be some of you out there that read this and probably don't feel it is of importance to try and see things from the perspective of others, and that is totally fine if you feel that way. That said, I doubt that applies to many of you because I know from the feedback that I've gotten from over the years that I've been doing this has came from mostly positive and enlightened individuals. Some of us are striving to become the best versions of ourselves, and what better way to do that than opening up our minds a little more to others?

I mentioned earlier how we're all aware that everyone has different ideas and opinions right? Thinking about it now, that is pretty much something that I mention in every topic that I cover, but that is beside the point right now. Because we all have different ways of viewing things, it is unrealistic to expect for everyone to always agree. As I stated already this is totally fine as long as there is a mutual respect between the parties that are having the disagreement. For me personally, what I notice now is that so many have the belief that the way they see and view things is the right way, and that no else's viewpoint matters that much. Now this is something that we probably all do to an extent, but the problem settles in when people start denigrating others for having an opinion different than theirs. So in essence, people are only one sided when it comes to their views, and not only are they interested in hearing out what others have to say, but they would rather just bash them because of the differences of opinion. If you really think about it for a second, what does this practice sound like? It almost could be a form of the R word, and we all know what the R word refers to. Since I'm totally against it, I'm not going to put that word on here, but I'm pretty sure that most of you understand my point. Again, disagreements are always going to happen, but the problems settle in when people choose to make it personal when others don't agree with them.

Beyond just trying to be a more open minded and well rounded individual, there are numerous reasons why it is important to open yourself to the ideas of others. However, because of the point that I'm trying to make in this topic, I want to focus on what I personally deem to be the most important reason for keeping an open mind when it comes to the ideas that others may have. The word that I'm thinking of now is "tolerance". We all know what tolerance is and what it means, however, I looked up the official definition through Google and this is the result that followed. It reads that tolerance is the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with. This definition totally encompasses why I think it is important to keep yourself open to the ideas of others. Keeping an open mind to what other people think not only allows you the opportunity to learn something new; it helps greatly in teaching you how to be able to respect the views of others even when you may not agree with their views. Even in our own lives we likely have friends and family members that do things that we may not necessarily agree with, but despite having issues with some of the things they do or the way they choose to live, we tolerate them because we love them. Yes it is easier to tolerate the people close to you compared to a complete stranger, but the people that we're close to were also strangers at one point as well right? Just something to consider.

The main point that I'm trying to get people to take away from this is that everyone's views matter because we're all here on this playing field of life. Sure the playing field of life isn't always a leveled one for everyone, but we all have the ability to think and live however we choose. The way that I think or view certain things isn't the only way that life should be looked at, just like the way the next person thinks isn't. Yes, it matters because however I see thing is my own reality, but the next person has their own reality as well. Bashing and downing other people for not having the same views as you or anyone else is just plain wrong. It is totally okay to disagree with other people, but never believe that because you disagree with them that your viewpoint is the end all be all. A lot of this has to do the fact that the average person today would rather do more talking that listening. When you talk more than you choose to listen, you able to get your point out there, but you also don't allow room to listen to other people's views. Try to listen more to what other people are saying. I can't speak for anyone else, but I think you'd be surprised at how much you're able to learn when you open yourself up to the ideas that other people may have. From my perspective, working towards becoming a more tolerant person towards others is one of the most important forms of personal growth that an individual can experience.

Well we have arrived at the end of another topic brothers and sisters! Time to sign off once again, but thank you as always for those that came through for another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! As I always mention before ending my topics, I hope that there was some meaning and understanding that could be gained from this, as well as the other topics I address on here. If you have any comments or feedback on any topic, feel free to drop down in the comments. You can also hit me up on Twitter @BradrickH. I'm pretty excited for tonight and tomorrow being that it is the NBA's All-Star Weekend. For those that are basketball fans out there, I hope you all enjoy. Again, I want to give my thoughts to those that were affected by the school shooting in Florida. Beyond all of that, I hope everyone has great weekend and an even better week ahead. Take care everyone, and I'll see you all in the next one! Peace!

©2018 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.