All people have greatness within them. Don’t believe me? Then I challenge you to do the following five things and see what you can learn about yourself.
With the powerful messages from the media, we get inundated with each day of perfect-looking people always happy. It sends the Message that you won’t be satisfied unless you look like them.
This Message is ridiculous because every person has weaknesses, shortcomings, unique likes, and thoughts, and the ideal of perfection is unattainable. The media tells you what you should think is attractive and what beauty you should aspire to reach, and no person on the face of the Earth can live up to that expectation of perfection.
When you look at yourself with complete objectivity and recognize that you have unique physical characteristics, thoughts, and talents that make you unique, how could you possibly exist any better than that? You are you, and beauty in being imperfect should be celebrated and not chastised or ignored because it is not what the media perceives to be perfect. The truth is that there is no such thing as usual. It is time to recognize your greatness!
Don’t Judge Others
Every person evaluates and judges things every day. That is how we keep ourselves safe and moving in directions that we feel are good for us. Judgments are a part of being a human being, and the skill is to help you determine safe situations from harmful ones. However, when your judgments start to label people’s values, they tend to force you into isolation and make your life experience less fulfilling. This negativity is because if you begin to judge someone else’s behavior or beliefs. We tend to look at the world through a tainted lens through which we evaluate others. Unfortunately, we tend to see a part of ourselves that we don’t like and are unwilling to come to terms with. For example, if you judge poor people as bad, perhaps it is not the people who are “bad,” “lazy,” or “freeloaders.” Maybe your fear of poverty creates these judgments and forces them to be expressed through your decisions.
When you look at someone who dresses differently than you, it is easy to criticize them as strange, but really inside of yourself, you may feel exactly like they look and don’t dare to do anything about it. We all fear that people will “find out “what we are like and therefore reveal ourselves as the “strange” dudes and dudettes we are.
The secret is that everyone is strange. This uniqueness results from the fact that we are all individuals with unique experiences that are ours alone. That is why we all have unique ideas, thoughts, and feelings about everything. When you start accepting others who have different views and lifestyles from you, that is a significant step towards making yourself and all that you think and feel. People are strange, unique, and unusual, and so are you. Accept it and enjoy life. When you judge someone else, you are judging yourself and your fears.
Look for the Gold
In these differences we all possess, you may focus on how strange someone else seems to you. They may have different religious views, cultural influences, or lifestyles, and it is up to you to learn what you can from them and find the attractiveness of their situation. That doesn’t mean that you have to accept their beliefs as accurate; it merely means that you understand why the thoughts and behaviors are what they are. Who is to say what is right?
Too often, I have kept people who are different at arm’s length or dismissed their thoughts without consideration because it is much less scary to reject something than to investigate it and consider its validity. There might be some nuggets of information that you can use in your life.
Like digging for gold, there might be thoughts a person different than you can teach you. Your mind may expand and learn to accept the good in others more readily. There is a chance for good in all people. It lives pretty deep in some, but the capacity for good is hiding like the future.
Be Kind To Yourself
Of all the judgments we make, the harshest are saved for ourselves. Why is it that people are so hard on themselves? How many people go through a day, a week, or a month without thinking about how great they are?
The answer is many, many people. A critical voice in our heads works to help us survive, and if you listen to those thoughts exclusively, you will never be satisfied or happy with who you are. (Ego) How often do you look at yourself in the mirror and see a unique talent that is you? Or do you only know the weakness, the age, your physical self’s imperfect physical self? e many years when these thoughts never even entered my mind. I never saw my strengths, weaknesses, or talents as a part of me. I only saw them as I thought others observed them, good or bad.
I have unique talents, as you have particular expertise o see this because then what do you do? You will have to develop it somehow, and being kind to yourself is a great place to start. If you don’t treat yours lf with some understanding and love for the things you bring to the table of life, who will?
Be Better Than You Were Yesterday
Don’t waste time comparing yourself to others in behavior, actions, talents, or weaknesses. Comparison is a slippery slope that will only detract from your abilities and stop you from reaching your potential.
You can always find someone who can write better, think sharper, jump higher, run faster, is more robust, or whatever than yourself. That is not the point of having talent. It would help if you ap excited about what you could do. Your talent is yours and is meant to be precisely what it is, and your only responsibility is to use it. Comparing what you do t someone else will only lead to you judging your talent, better or worse. Look at others and appreciate their skills, but don’t compare them to your own; it wastes time.
You can evaluate something objectively and learn from it without comparing yourself. There is no reason to d this other than to either make yourself feel bad because you don’t perceive that you measure up or build yourself up by trashing someone else. Be the best, most origi l you can be; that will have to be enough. Focus on being a better person than you were yesterday.
Embrace Your Uniqueness!!
There is only one you in this world, regardless of what has happened in the past. Or, what anyone else thins s, you should be proud of who you are. It would help if you were glad that you are you and have all of the tremendous physical and mental talents you possess. Your gifts will offer so ething to the world that can’t come from anywhere else.
You always have the choice to explore these talents or to let them lie dormant and waste away. That doesn’t mean that you will still be perfect or always make the best choices; it merely means that you will share your talent with your talented you and let the chips fall where they may.
There is beauty in this imperfection that makes you perfect. Being “Normal” is overrated and dull; being you is an exciting adventure that will last you the rest of your life. Be the best you that you can imagine!
“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in t is the notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” —Wilma Rudolph.
“People do not decide to become extraordinary, and they decide to accomplish extraordinary things.” —Edmund Hillary.
“Mediocrity will never do. You are capable of some ing better.” —Gordon B. Hinckley.
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