Category: motivation

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growth motivation

Getting Older or Getting Old

Aging is inevitable. We start getting older the minute we are born. Of course, as children we keep growing and learning. But as adults, we have a choice to continue to grow, or just get old.

www.brainyquote.com/s/a_195fc

Too many of us decide once school is over, there is nothing to learn. We live on knowledge that is stale and affected by time. Life gives us some bumps and bruises along the way. We learn to fear some things and become bitter about other things.

It is our choice. Are you getting better or worse? We can continue to learn and grow. The body may be giving us issues, but our minds are always ready to learn. Our spirits can soar above the tragedies and disappointments of this world. We can decide to become better instead of bitter.

Each day, we have a choice to grow. There are several things we can do today to make that happen.

  • Read a book
  • Keep a journal
    • It can be written, or drawn
    • It can contain scraps of paper notes or photos like a scrapbook
    • If nothing else, write down what you are thankful for
  • Take up a new hobby
  • Consider other opinions
  • Laugh! Yes, find something to laugh about in good humor

We can have a growth mindset. Every one of us is getting older. But none of us have to just get old!

Categories
motivation

Stop Making Excuses

Stop Making Excuses

There will be some challenges and problems. Have you noticed that? They especially like to show up on a Monday morning. But if we want to get anywhere, we have to stop making excuses. A quote by George Washington Carver reminds me that finding blame is nothing more than a bad habit.

“Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.”
George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver Quotes. BrainyQuote.com, BrainyMedia Inc, 2022. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/george_washington_carver_158549, accessed January 10, 2022.

A while back, I read a book entitled, QBQ: The Question Behind the Question. The premise of the book is when we face a challenge, the questions we ask ourselves determines whether we take personal accountability or not.

Bad Questions

  • When is someone going to do something about this?
  • Why can’t that other group get their act together?
  • Who messed up?

Good Questions

  • What can I do to solve this?
  • How can I find a solution?
  • How can I make a difference?

Do we play the victim, or do we make things better? Is it possible a bad habit of making excuses drags us into a victim and entitlement mindset? I say the answer is yes.

We can choose to succeed by ditching the excuses. It starts with the questions we ask ourselves when we face a challenge. And the questions we ask can be a habit. Let’s do what we can today to make a positive impact instead of playing the blame game.

Categories
motivation

Burning Down the House

Burning Down the House

“If you burn your neighbor’s house down, it doesn’t make your house look any better.”
Lou Holtz

Lou Holtz Quotes. BrainyQuote.com, BrainyMedia Inc, 2022. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/lou_holtz_153611, accessed January 7, 2022.

Whether you call it backstabbing, mud-slinging, disparagement, gossip, or some other term, it doesn’t do us any good to burn down another person’s house. Negative comments don’t do us any good.

We can tear our friends and neighbor’s down if we like, but we still end up in the middle of a mess. We look weaker for it. We know if someone is negative about another person, they are most likely negative about us as well. So we are cautious about that person. What house will they burn down next?

Politicians have been caught in this trap for decades. When they go against each other, it’s the last person standing that may win, but they don’t look any stronger. The negative ads and comments only make the victor look weak.

It is far better to love our neighbor than to burn down their house. Let’s keep our neighborhood pristine and keep the conversation positive.

Categories
motivation

How to Waste Time

How to waste time

Nobody needs a lesson on how to waste time, do they? Or do we think it’s so obvious we don’t realize there are subtle ways to ruin a day?

There are plenty of examples of time-sucking activities. However, what came to mind when you read the headline? Did any of these thoughts come to you about wasting time?

  • A slacker just sits in front of their TV each day
  • Someone at work doing anything but work
  • A social butterfly flitting between people, spreading gossip and idle chit chat to their surroundings

We look at disdain to people we consider lazy and unproductive. But what we don’t realize is how often we waste time being busy. It is possible to be incredibly busy but doing the wrong things.

  • We can stay up late, then wake up late in a manic push to get out the door
  • Some of us can be tempted to just answer email instead of consider long-term planning
  • An alert on our phone can distract us from an important task we are doing

We don’t have to be idle to waste time. Focusing all our energy on urgent matters that aren’t important can make us waste just as much time as someone who isn’t busy. In fact, we need downtime and breaks to keep us from burning out. Consider taking a break and do the following:

  • Write a list and consider what is really important for today
  • Turn off phone notifications when you need to focus
  • Spend some time considering what is important in the long-term as opposed to what seems urgent today that won’t matter tomorrow
  • Take a look at the toxic time triangle and consider if your life is out of balance

There are too many ways to waste time. Let’s consider how slowing down and taking a look at what’s important can keep us from wasting more of it.

Categories
motivation

Technology is Temporary

Technology is Temporary

Yesterday, the big news was that the classic BlackBerry operating system would no longer be supported. There was a time I would have loved to have a BlackBerry. But I had to settle for a Palm Pilot. Do you remember those? Alas, technology is temporary. What was the hottest thing twenty years ago now looks like unusable junk.

As a result, for technology to be relevant, it must advance. One day, my iPhone will be useless. Unless I keep up, the laptop I’m using today will be a relic tomorrow.

I once did a post on making the best use of technology. I wrote it at about the time the COVID pandemic was in full swing. At the time, I wondered if I would be working remotely and how to handle it. It didn’t happen then but did this week. The virus keeps mutating and we have to adjust. In a sense, technology is like a mutating virus. We either have to adjust or get left behind. Progress is rough, isn’t it?

But if there was no change to face, life would be pretty boring. We need to change and grow or things stagnate. I think of this every time I drive by a neglected farm house. It could be a nice place if someone adjusted and made made improvements long ago. But today, it is rotting away. The house and barn roofs have holes in them. Nobody would want to live there without a total overhaul.

Therefore, we must move on and ditch the BlackBerries. We need to keep growing and adjust to what is coming next. Technology is temporary, much like every other area in life. When we adjust, we grow and improve. But when we resist, we neglect and end up with a bunch of useless junk.