Finding Myself

Have you ever heard “life’s to short not to live it to the fullest”, and wonder what it really implies? Does it mean to be an extrovert over an introvert? To spend all available time with family? To read books for a frisky adventure?

Spent some alone time in the woods, great way to get some snazzy photos and relax.

I’m an 18 year old male that enjoys everything in life with an optimistic view, but I feel like I’m disconnecting from the world. I laugh and smile, talk to peers at school, but come home to not knowing what I want to do or like. And so, I decided that beginning a blog may improve my way of thinking and create a nice hobby while connecting with other people all over the world.

My plan, at the moment, is to make a blog about improving ways of life and optimizing ways of thinking, to better the life’s of myself and possibly others. Motivational posts, psychological posts, helpful websites, anything that I believe will help myself. And in my journey to finding myself, I would like to help anyone out there with minimal thought for who they are or want to be by tossing my new plans and ideas on a post. First on my agenda: Improving what I say to others. 

Challenge of the day: Write about something that brought your mood up today.

People Have Better Things To Do

I’m not the only one who tries to read the minds of peers all around. I’m not the only one who makes up scenarios in my head that NEVER become true (or at least as bad as I thought). Heck, I bet I’m not alone when it comes to stopping myself because of an irrelevant thought!

We, as ‘normal’ people, are afraid to do something at sometime every day because of what we THINK is going to happen if we try it. But how much of what is in our heads actually comes true?

Personally, I can say that 80% of what I scare myself out of trying is because of one lousy thought. Of course, I’m young and don’t have much experience with anything, but that only goes so far from the generalization of this. Once we experience something, just once, we tend to do it again without second guessing ourselves out of it.

Now why are we timid when it comes to trying new things? I think I have a simple and straightforward answer to that…

The thought of other people thinking of us in a way that we’d rather them not thinking trumps (ha, get it… ‘Trump’… classic) our initial drive when we were alone. If plans change because of other factors, then they change. That’s life. But don’t let low-life’s ruin your thinking.

Be True To Who You Are

Try that new thing that was planned on doing. Invest in a product, ask a dumb question, talk to someone new, just don’t stop because others got to your head. Of course, this is a lot to ask straight out, (challenge) so do something that scares you once every other day, then when you feel better about it, once a day… and so on… I figure we have all heard ‘growth comes when you step out of your comfort zone’, it’s about time we all start trying just that.

 And the truth is.. people don’t really judge us as much as we think. Just ask yourself quick, how often do people actually say what you thought they were going to say because of what you did? My answer: rarely ever. Never assume.

Respect The Farmers!

Countless amounts of times I have heard people laugh at the subject of farmers. My family is hosting a foreign exchange student that had just laughed her head off when she realized I was playing a farming game (she’s from the city, we’re country). Farmers are essential for our life… NO FARMERS, NO US! So why do farmers get so much hate?

I worked on an activity farm this last summer that is made solely for other people to experience a farm. The majority of our “customers” were young families (parents and young children) that wanted to experience a small taste of a farmers land and animals. People think of farms as a nice escape and naturally walk, while others think of farms as a mess and disgrace. But do people realize how hard the life of a farmer is nowadays?

They don’t get a typical 9-5 work day 5 days a week, they get 5-6,7,8,9,10 work day 6-7 days a week. Everyday, the world makes it harder for a farmer to stay in business and produce the food we all consume. Most people don’t even have a glance of a thought on how that food got here other that… “I got it from a grocery store”. 

It just ticks me off every time someone laughs of a farmer… like, YOUR FAVORITE THING IN THE WORLD IS MADE BY THEM. Just open your eyes and realize what they do for us, what they make for us, how hard they work for us.

Accept Everything

My problem is that I expect to much out of people. I expect others to understand my jokes and sarcasm, I expect them to understand the type of person I am, I expect them to enjoy everything I do. But in reality, it’s time that I admit to myself that a lot of what I do is, how do I put it… stupid. I have a mouth that likes to run faster than I would like it to and tend to say things that do more harm than good. Every morning, I sit at one of the lunch tables before any classes start, and a couple of my friends always come and join once they arrive to school. We say our hello’s and all, like normal people, but then I always go straight back to being the sarcastic person I am. Most mornings, I leave someone with a blank stare and a “…what” because of some stupid comment I just made trying to be funny. Then, of course, knowing that it was a stupid comment, I’ll just say “nothing important”. My point here is that I need to accept that I am sarcastic WAY to often and accept that others don’t like the sarcasm.

So past my little spiel about myself, let’s hit the topic specifically.

• Accept that others are better than you. ▪ One of my major problems is that I dislike people that are much better than me (what a surprise). I don’t like being the underdog.. (I could go into the depths of why, but let’s just say bullying as a young child). But looking at the bright side, optimism, I use this as a way to get better, to improve my skills, to know how to treat others.
• Accept that others are worse. This may be the most important for me to work on. I always give a look or make a sly comment that hurts them without realizing until to late. I live in a family of 6: 3 brothers, my father, and my mother. Being a family of guys, everything is competitive. The one who loses typically got made fun of in some way (jokingly, and we all know it’s just for fun), but I feel like that’s where I picked up my nature of expecting people to work hard at getting better. And so when I feel like people aren’t trying, it bugs me. For no good reason do I have an explanation to why it bugs me… I guess it’s just another thing that I realized I need to work on.
• Accept that you have flaws. No one is great at everything, nuff said. Use these flaws to know what not to do.. (I gotta learn to do this so very badly)
• Accept failure. I figure we’ve all learned that “failure is the key to success”, but that only goes so far. TRYING NEW THINGS REPEATEDLY and failing is the key to success and figuring out who you are.. (Can’t claim it’s true since I haven’t tried, but that’s the point.. I GOTTA TRY).
• Accept that others are different. If there is anything anyone needs to work on, accepting that others are different than us is the one thing we need to do. Not everyone is as hardworking or academically inclined as us. And in the judgmental world we live in today, taking a step back and remembering that others are different is one of the most important things we can do. If we catch ourselves judging someone from the one action or comment that they just made, stop yourself from thinking “that was dumb”, or “jeez you’re weird”, or simply “I don’t like you already”. We don’t know why they are like they are. Maybe they have a hard home life, maybe they are bullied and can’t make any friends to support them because they are always judged right away, maybe they are so nervous to talk to a stranger (you), that they said something they didn’t mean or did something they hadn’t planned on doing. We just never know what people want to do or why they do it. We just need to accept what they have become because of what they have experienced!

This list can go on and on and on, and I figure that you have already thought of another thing that is important to accept in life. I believe we all have more accepting to do in this world.

“If you are going to judge others it is wisest to do so individually not collectively and on your own direct experience of them personally. But first – and throughout – examine yourself closely. Blurred vision can often occur due to the lens, perspective and perceptions of the viewer projected onto the object that it sees. Be wary of taking to the judges seat. Above all meet at treat yourself and everyone else mindfully, compassionately with humanity.” ― Rasheed Ogunlaru

So for my next challenge to all: Catch yourself and take a step back before judging… to remember… that the stranger standing in front of you acts like they do for a specific reason that even they may not know. Try to accept who they have become. [Yes, I understand that some people are totally out of it and impossible to be with; just try.]

(Don’t get the wrong impression on how I am mentally/physically. I am a healthy kid with a great mindset, I’ve only brought out the sides of me that I believe I need changing. Hopefully I keep up with this blogging and talk about what I do well to better the lives of others and possibly let you see a better way of treating others.)