Not everyone will understand your journey. That’s fine. It’s not their journey to make sense of. It’s yours.
Author | Photographer | CG Artist | Filmmaker
When you are being genuinely appreciated for something, accept it. And if you know you can improve upon what you are being appreciated for, don’t point it out. Just do it.
Everyone is a work-in-progress. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be appreciated for where we are on our journey.
Just because you’re not on top of the mountain doesn’t mean you can’t be appreciated for the things you’re doing to get there.
You can put yourself on a better path in life starting today, but it requires you to actually do some things.
You must stop perpetuating your own dissatisfaction with yourself, your career, your relationships, or your life by doing nothing. You must commit to no longer settling for the path of least resistance. You must commit to working towards your goals instead of relying on wishful thinking. And you must be willing to deal with life’s challenges without allowing yourself to be overcome by them.
Excerpt from: Lessons Learned from The Path Less Traveled Volume 1
Life can get really difficult & discouraging at times & make you want to crawl under a rock in defeat. Don’t.
Rest if you have to, but don give up. This is not the end of your story. It’s not only OK to Take a Time Out & consider your options & re-strategize. It’s wise.
— Zero Dean (@ZeroDean) January 25, 2019
Goals. Don’t quit when you’re angry. Don’t quit when you’re tired. Don’t quit when you’re upset. Don’t quit when you’re disappointed.
Only quit if you feel satisfied with your efforts & *truly* believe that moving on is in your best interest.
Otherwise, hangon & keepgoing!
— Zero Dean (@ZeroDean) January 19, 2019
It is far more effective to be a person who encourages others than it is to spend one’s time finding faults, criticizing, or judging people.
Not only will you feel better about yourself as a result of being a force for good, you’ll be making a positive difference in people’s lives.
Refuse to put people down. Refuse to judge those who aren’t exactly like you. Refuse to do to others what you wouldn’t like done to you.
Remember that everyone lives their lives in a way that reflects what they’ve learned from life experience.
Not everyone thinks the same. Not everyone knows what you know. Not everyone has the same level of awareness.
Help people live their lives in a positive way by encouraging more of what you’d like to see in the world.
Lift people up. Raise people’s spirits. Make friends, not enemies.
Help educate people by being a good example.
Be kind. Be encouraging. Be honest. Be tolerant.
Inspire others to live with integrity.
Lead by example.
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Global manufacturers would like us to believe that holidays are the best time to show appreciation by buying more “stuff” for the people we care about.
And every holiday we do it with cards, flowers, chocolate & confectionaries, and a million cheap trinkets of all kinds made by overworked & underpaid employees in foreign lands.
And we buy into this idea — holiday after holiday — because we like LOVE to be appreciated.
In fact, feeling appreciated is one of our greatest emotional needs. So we don’t tend to mind so much that the primary reason people show us appreciation on holidays is because they are expressly being reminded told to through advertising.
While there is certainly something to be said about being appreciated & showing appreciation on mutually agreed upon and culturally convenient dates, one could make an argument that the most sincere times to show appreciation are those times when a person you care about was simply on your mind and you thought enough of them to take the time to say so. Not because it was a holiday. Not because it was convenient. But just because it felt right and you truly wanted to do it.
I think most people would agree that any time is a good time to be appreciated. But by that same token, any time is a good time to SHOW appreciation, but if you truly want to maximize the experience, the BEST times to show gratitude for those you care about might just be the times when it isn’t a common cultural phenomenon.
(* within obvious social norms)
So if today isn’t one of those holidays — or even if it is! — is there someone you could show appreciation to right now?
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” — Leo F. Buscaglia
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