It may be the case that you see others acting in a certain way and want to change their behavior. Doing this by any form of form gets you as much resistance as it takes to cancel out your force. One way to cause a change in response from others is to change yourself first. While you can’t control everything or anything about someone else, you have the opportunity to alter something you have been doing, and this will then result in a different response from the person you were wanting to “change”.
There are experiences you don’t take part in, people you don’t interact with, actions you don’t take, because of the pain you perceive to be involved with them. You tell yourself it is too much to handle, cancel it, and then switch to another activity that you feel does not contain that level of pain. The message provided in this discussion is to not make that switch. Often, you make the switch quickly before even taking a minute to think about what you are doing.
Check the dictionary and you will find that a habit is an acquired pattern of behavior that often occurs automatically. Habits are things that you do subconsciously, often not even thinking about it. They are part of your daily routine and can often be hard to break. Have you ever got in the car to drive home from work thinking, “I’ve really got to stop and pick up some milk from the shop”, and the next thing you know, you’re at home without the milk! This is an example of a habit, and these habits that are part of your daily life can be both bad and good.
It is often the case that one item also represents something else that is taking place. This is true in the case of sadness and anger, as they are connected emotions, but sadness is more about healing and anger is more about forcefully correcting the issue. Another connection is present between a feeling of jealousy and a level of laziness. If/when you are jealous of someone, you envy their position, and the resources they may have. This doesn’t benefit you or society in any way, and is a result of laziness on your part to take action.
Take a look at the friends you have who are the most important to you, as well as the ones who have helped you the most, and think for a minute about how you met them. Most of our initial contacts were chance encounters in a public place, and it may have been just as likely that we would have not made the contact. Think about all the things you have done and worked on with certain people, and imagine if you had not met them through a random encounter. This thought solidifies the concept behind why you want to get to know more people.
“Competition is easier to accept if you realize it is not an act of oppression or abrasion – I’ve worked with my best friends in direct competition.” – Diane Sawyer
This quote leaves you with a proper sense of how to respond to competition if you have been allowing your competition to slow you down. Remember that your competitors are not fixated on leaving you unable to produce, but are looking to expand upon their own operations. To understand this, you have to let go of some ego that is telling you that any competitor you see has you in their sights.
If you aren’t currently in a state of powerful activity, unless you are in a period of relaxation, you might want to ask yourself why. You have the opportunity right now to do something that jump-starts your day. This could be contacting someone you are afraid to contact, setting a public goal that you are worried you can successfully reach, or taking a financial risk. If you are in a passive state, or any sort of state that represents a slight amount of boredom, I would say there is a problem in place, but at the same time, there is no problem at all. You can turn it around in one minute.
Your potential is something you want to assess before you take action, so you don’t head down a path that doesn’t suit you well. This is the topic of my guest post “Assess Your Potential Before Taking Action”, which has been posted at Life Optimizer, which is written and maintained by Donald Latumahina. What can be found on Life Optimizer is a selection of articles about how to live life to the fullest, including discussion about attitude, work, learning, and purpose. The variety of articles that is available on the site keeps them interesting as a whole. I will close comments on this post, but feel free to check out the article and leave a comment at the following link: