Daily Mood Quote
Day 228 – January 2, 2012
It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes.
~Sally Field
Recently, I overheard a young lady put herself down and ask the question, “What's wrong with me?” A group of friends were trying to get together to have an afternoon outing before the “normalness” of life (family, school, work, etc.) returned after the holidays. Well, you know the saying, “the best laid plans of mice and men,” once again had gone astray. All of the sudden, some of the friends couldn't go; they had other commitments and they were texting the leader of this group to cancel. Unfortunately, this upset one young lady very much, which resulted in her lashing out at one of her friends. This prompted the aforementioned young lady to question her own character; to ask “What's wrong with me??? Now, I understand that this happens, it happened to me, once or twice in my life, but when somebody deliberately and with malice attacks another's character, virtue, or good intent for just simply helping... well, they should be ashamed of themselves. Make no mistake, this behavior is wrong and hurts feelings, which begins to cause loss of trust in a relationship. This is the precursor of a fast-moving death spiral in any relationship.
An unknown author said, “Success comes in cans, not can'ts.” A lot of what success is about is “attitude” and if you allow the can'ts provided by other people to determine your opinion of yourself, then the can'ts will always outnumber the cans. Understand this; the “can'ts” can come from just about anyone, a spouse, a teacher, a friend, a family member, a boss and a complete and total stranger, but the can and the belief in yourself, can only come from inside you. One of my favorite quotes comes from David Brinkley, he said, “A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her.” That foundation starts with the belief that you can do something, be someone remarkable and follow your better purpose. Let's face it, it's challenging to not succumb to the accumulated negativity of others and the pressures of society in general. Even my husband who has been born with a God given art talent has found himself, “frozen” by the can'ts and the pressures to make his work “commercially viable”; all based on his parent's favorite saying, “I don't know how your gonna make a living doing that.” It comes subtly; it creeps into the back of your mind and can ensnare the most educated and self-assured, if they are not mindful of it and it's something we all face. The key is to make the conscious effort to overcome the subconscious negative messages. To give more weight to the “I can” than to the blizzard of “you can't.”
In the case of the young lady; well it seems she thought it through and decided that the problem wasn't with her, but with the timing of things... that's not something we can control. So she let it go. Bravo!
The coming of the new year provides us with an opportunity to reset our internal compasses and follow the path of “I can” and leave behind the negative “you can'ts” that have been dragging us down. I know it sounds somewhat trite, but it is true never the less; all “fresh starts” begin with a fresh attitude about ourselves and our possibilities. The key is to make the positive “I cans” sing above the murmur of the accumulated negative inputs into our lives. That track, like pops and scratches on a record album, can be annoying, but it does not detract from the music that our spirits are meant to sing in our lives. The original “master recordings” are there for us, if we simply stop and listen to our hearts.
Wendy Wasserstein said, “Don't live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable.”
Helen Keller (blind and deaf) was remarkable, Beethoven (deaf) was remarkable, Steven Hawking
(amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), sometimes known as Lou Gehrig's disease) is remarkable. I can, so can you...
How “remarkable” will you be today?
Tune in tomorrow to read the daily mood quote
Thank you for reading.
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