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Not everyone will understand your journey. That’s fine. It’s not their journey to make sense of. It’s yours.

Zero Dean

Author | Photographer | CG Artist | Filmmaker

The value in difficult people

 

In the same way that the hardest lessons we learn in life are often the most valuable, so, too, are the difficult people we meet along the way.

Even the unfriendliest and most challenging person we cross paths with has something of value to teach us about ourselves.

Sometimes we need to learn patience. Sometimes it’s self-discipline. Sometimes it’s to not let other people have so much control over our thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

Whatever it may be, the people we find particularly challenging are valuable because they can instantly highlight weaknesses in our self-control. They can trigger us to think, act, or behave in such a way that isn’t congruent with the type of person we want to be.

But every experience we have in life — whether we choose to label it as “good” or “bad” — is an opportunity for growth. And every encounter we have with difficult people provides us with an opportunity to identify the things we need to work on in order to close the gaps between the person we are and the person we want to be.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” — Victor Frankl

A key to surviving experiences with difficult people — without being brought to the brink of behaving badly — is to remember that we may not always know what to do, but we can always choose the type of person we want to be.

And, with practice, we can choose to refuse to let others cause us to act in a way that is in direct conflict with the person we picture ourselves as.

And we can create the frame of mind necessary to do this by choosing to see the value in the negative people we encounter in life by actively using our experiences with them in such a way that we become not bitter, but better.

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Originally Published on: Jul 14, 2015 @ 06:42

There is a big difference between “I can’t” and “it just isn’t a high priority.”

There is a big difference between “I can’t” and “It just isn’t a high priority”.

When a person says, “I can’t”, it means they are incapable of doing something.

It does not mean, “I don’t want to.”
It does not mean, “I just don’t have time.”
It does not mean, “I don’t want to work to accomplish something.”

What many people actually mean when they use the word “can’t” is “it just isn’t a high priority.”

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Excerpt from: Goal setting and breaking the “I can’t” excuse addiction

Originally Published on: Sep 20, 2012 @ 17:16

How to find your inner voice in difficult times

How to find your inner voice in difficult times

When facing a challenge, ask yourself:

“What would a stronger, more confident, and even better version of myself do in this situation?”

When you truly give it thought and get an answer, that’s your inner voice talking — and it’s generally a good idea to listen to it.

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Originally Published on: Jun 7, 2013 @ 19:31

Strive for authenticity

Bit by bit we create fictitious relationships with people when how we act isn’t congruent with who we truly are. And then if we rely on or grow fond of those relationships, we become conditioned to elicit behaviors that aren’t a reflection of our true selves.

This poses a number of problems. Not least of which is the fact that the bigger the gap becomes between how we act and who we truly are, the more friction we feel. Even if we don’t feel uneasy at the time, living in an incongruent fashion eventually catches up with us and manifests itself as any number of relationship-related issues.

Always strive to act as authentically as possible. By aligning how you act with who you truly are, you will not only form far more meaningful and rewarding relationships, you will naturally attract many more of the types of people you actually want in your life.

Originally Published on: May 21, 2017 @ 19:38

It’s not that we should wish to eliminate all challenges…

Excerpt from: Overcoming overwhelmed

It’s not that we should wish to eliminate all challenges from our lives, but instead focus on developing the strength, discipline, and attitude necessary to effectively deal with each & every one that we encounter.

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Originally Published on: Sep 30, 2015 @ 06:22

Making progress is more important than making excuses

While you are still waiting to find an easy way (or a perfect time), someone else is already getting results because they decided making progress is more important than making excuses.

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Originally published on: Sep 10, 2012 @ 16:17

It’s not about how much the things that one has are worth…

Excerpt from: Learn to let go

It’s not about how much the things that one has are worth, it’s about how much one values the things that they have.

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Originally published on: Sep 1, 2015 @ 06:12