Thoughts on Thoughts

I spend a great majority of my work life trying to tell people what an enormous impact our thinking has on the way our life turns out. Diagrams, charts, overheads, worksheets, videos, stories, quotations, speakers, you name it. I guess I am officially in the buisness of "people-improvement," but only in the sense that Craftsman is in the business of home improvement.

We can recieve the tools to improve something, but ultimatley, it is our choice whether we implement those tools to better ourselves and our surroundings. My hope is the investments made over the years pay off.

I have bounced back and forth for ages on the decicion making; as to whether it originates from feelings or thinking. I have heard gobs of theory and explanation supporting both. Since both thinking and feeling are both legitimate and, at times, faulty, I can't really say what proginates our decision making.

I do believe, however, that feelings are influenced by thinking, ergo, I will assume our thinking drives our emotions. For example, when you see a child with cancer, you will conjure up a plethora of emotions, ranging from sadness, compassion, fear, and injustice. The latter provides me with the basis of my conclusion. Where do we get the emotion of injustice--the fact that something bad has happened, but yet we know it should not be thus?

Where does anger come from? Love? Et al? I believe our emotions are a response to our paradigm--we feel a certian way because things are in or out of order. We feel injustice with the young lukemia patient because we know kid's shouldn't get cancer. We get angry at wasteful bureaucrats because we know they should be thrify guardians of the public trust.

Our emotions are a reflection of our mind, our thinking. They tell you what you think about a certian situation. They are not meant to dictate your behavior.

Just some thoughts on thoughts.

Many Lanes, One Road

Having surrounded myself over the past few years with some amazing followers of Christ, the more I see how God moves and prepares His children to hear His Word, obey it, and thereupon share it with others. He speaks through media, music, art, poetry, books, meetings, and relationships, to name a few. We are travelling on a multi-lane superhighway.
We are all on the same road, but there are many lanes. You may prefer the middle lane, your spouse the left lane, and I the right. When we all look up at the signs, however, the destination is the same.
Be wary of individuals who prescribe only driving in the left, right, middle, etc. They have forgotten we are all on the same road. "But the view is so much clearer over here," they will say. "You should really consider merging over with us, you will get there so much quicker."
Are we not all on the same road? Do we not all have the same direction? And upon arriving, if we ask whether the lane was the right one, an even bigger question could be asked of us, "What does that matter to you? Follow Me."
There are people who take detours, premature exit ramps, wrong ways, u-turns, and the like. To those people we have an obligation to let them know the goal is up ahead, not in the rest stops and convenience stores that tempt us with a false haven. Identifying them is obvious--their vehicles have left the road completely or are stopped alongside it.
What is to be said for those of us who are looking ahead, along the same road? Are the energies we expend directed on the premise that we should all be in the same lane? Why do people strive to do so, or frown upon those that differ?
It is because they don't realize you and they are headed in the same direction. My suggestion? Smile, wave, and keep driving.
You may not like reading, that is the left lane, you are in the right. Another may not like pre-dawn Bible studies, that is the left-center lane. The bigger question to be asked is, "Are we united by our common purpose? Are we on the same road, or have you taken a detour?

The Art of Denial

I am surrounded by men who refuse to take a look at their own lives and realize they made terrible decisions. Accordingly, I daily must review my own choice making and decide if the choices made were the best out of the available ones.
I am amazed at how much effort and energy people take to disavow responsibility for their situation, speedily transferring blame, justifying, rationalizing, etc. With the plethora of excuses I have heard over the years I am convinced that a human being can justify any and every type of poor decision making and behavior that has ever been conducted by humankind.
Looking back at history's evildoers and contrasting them to the ones I work with, the conclusion arrives that men such as Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, et al, were convinced they had justification for their actions. I am positive of the fact. A man can brainwash himself into thinking just about anything.
Turning inwards, therefore, and examining my own thought patterns, has become a daily routine of self-examination and difficult introspection. Never allowing myself to judge my behavior with those of the lawbreakers, but of the possibilities that arise within my own conscious, provides me with the appropriate information to make sound choices.

Life is Funny

The only thing you can be sure about in your life is that it will not turn out the way you expect it to. That's not necessarily a bad nor a good thing; it's just the way it is. If you think about the three thousand ways your life could turn out, you could be just about anywhere by now--a pilot, a politician, or a bum. Are you happy with the way it turned out? If not, I know who to blame:

You.

The same thing goes for me, of course. Honestly, when someone asks me if I'm happy with my life, of course I'm going to answer "yes!" I know that if my life is miserable, it's due to my own engineering. No one in their right mind would admit they are dissatisfied with their situation when they know their hands shape the life they lived.



Life is funny. People are funny. We should all be laughing a lot more than we do.

Plenty to Say but No One to Listen

Ah once again I return to the blog, the boon for all of us wanna-be writers who have illusions of grandeur. People blog for as many reasons as there are blogs, mine are purely selfish in motive.

That being said, I thank you for visiting, and if you find this blog uninspiring or bland, that's fine. You would probably find me likewise. I don't wake up every morning and try to find ways to impress people with my wit, wisdom, or ingenuity. Obviously my list of friendships are short.

People will automatically assume that a person is unhappy with such a situation, but alas, I am perfectly content in my small band of friends; I wouldn't trade them for anything.

One can never assume that the feeling is mutual, only hope it is. You'll find out when conflict comes. Oh, and it will come.

When I Get Around to It

Things I want to do when I turn 30:

• Write a book
• Write all my family and loved ones
• Get back in shape

Short list, you say? My mathematical calculations say that a short list has a higher chance of getting done than a long one. That, and those three things will take a year in themselves.

What type of book? I have always enjoyed fantasy literature, akin to Tolkein, Lewis, Jordan, so that is the genre I am most familiar with. I do have a background in military history, but I believe I can push that into the book. Having read over half of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, I have little dobut that the ideas swirling around in my head are at least half as good as his. How does one sit down and write a book anway? We'll find out.

First Blog

The ironic thing about blogs is the ridiculous assumption anyone would think what you have to say is worth reading. That being said, I do not plan for anyone besides myself to check this on a regular basis. If you found this blog, either by a typo or some strange butterfly effect from eating a jelly donut and sneezing which caused you to click here, odds are that you didn't intend to.

Well, it's too late now; you're here, so you might as well stay and see what this blogger is all about. I've never met anyone who didn't have a lot to say about everything; it's just that most people don't care to hear what other folks' ideas, dreams, aspirations, fears, and passions are. Perhaps this blog will connect with you in some way; maybe not. But I do hope you enjoy it and check back often.

Oh, and clean up that jelly donut you sneezed on the keyboard; that stuff is hard to get out once it hardens.