It’s taken me nearly 20 years to figure it out, but I think I’m finally starting to accept people for who they are. And when something takes that long to figure out, I feel compelled to share my realization.
Which is…everything in life is a choice.
This is as plain and simple as I can boil it down. I stand in between many different friends, co-workers, family members, acquaintances and their opinions and personalities just like you. Of the many different views on the many INSERT RANDOM 2020 EVENT/LIFE HERE biased topics, only a handful of those people stand out to me and they are the ones able to put aside their differences and remain considerate people. The ones who will remain calm in a heated discussion on which party said what during the conventions, the ones who find the time to juggle all the shit in their lives and continue to push on with a smile, remain friendly and listen or give advice on all the shit you share with them, the people who have lost something or someone but channeled the energy from grief to fuel their passion or to help others experiencing the same troublesome events in life.
Take a moment to reflect on how many of the people surrounding you in your life are similar and agree to disagree or respect your thoughts and feelings as a person. Most people are in general too busy living their own lives and too stubborn to admit the counter argument you have just presented them holds any merit. The ones who when shown or corrected when they make a mistake don’t explode on you or shutdown and clam up, or worse become dismissive like what you say has no value, rather they accept the new knowledge not the general and disorganized thoughts they hold as law. I’m as liable as the next human to be one of these stubborn personalities and in self reflection I’m “turning a new leaf” if you will(I also always encourage others to go off and do their own research as we all are human and we all make mistakes).
But I say lets start accepting people for who they are. You don’t after all have to keep them in your life, again everything in life is a choice. It really is a beautiful thing and I am going to choose to not let the naysayers or negative personas continue to influence me and my actions.
The key to maximizing your mindset starts with letting go of the negative thoughts in your mind, not changing the negative thoughts in someone else’s. Here I always thought the positive quotes in the world were there for pick me ups, but as I grow older I feel they are just mantras to live by. Once you make this revelation I think I’d like to compare it to an addict reforming and finding faith. There are truly some things in life we could all live without so lets start living without our negative thoughts. The ones that keep us up at night wondering what if, or keep us grounded because we are afraid of the unknown. Surround yourself with positivity and it becomes difficult not to stay positive.
Lets branch out and try new things, make new paths, fail, fall, learn and above all else grow and enjoy this one life we have to live. Find someone who does something you want to do and start a conversation. Make new friends or find a new set of co-workers, do any one thing different but in a general direction you want to go. And remember you wouldn’t be able to do anything you can now if you didn’t fail a few times first.
Quick update on my 30 day running challenge, today was the 21st day out of 30 and in doing so have run 46.73 miles this month! I was talking to a friend recently and said if I didn’t take up this self initiated challenge I’d at most have run 2-6 miles per week, if that, so in comparison I’d be at most 18 or so miles in. Whoop! I also know I mentioned that I’d be posting a weekly run collage, but I’ll be honest I’ve been working on a 30 day collage I’m more happy with. So if you’ve been missing out check out my stories on Instagram every day and you can see my smiling sweaty face.
This weeks practice was the word max. Instantly reminded me of Goofs’ son and was good practice for the minuscule x. I couldn’t help but feel like the main slant on the x was exaggerated so i brought it up to a fellow artist and he pointed out the fact it is representing one helluva optical illusion. Upon further investigation with a straight edge that is exactly what is happening. So fear not the down stroke on the x is following the 52º main slant and the cross is made following the 30º connective slant. I hope that if you are practicing this particular minuscule you find this information useful. I also found following the instructions on the top of the page “make true curves” totally helps keep me from making my pointy mountainous minuscule m’s and leaves them as smooth as little rolling hills.
Until next week – Happy practicing!