Are You in Control?

Are you in control of your life?

Most of us like to think we are, but in reality, there is very little that we can control.

For example, can you control how your wife is going to react when you tell her "there are just two more minutes left in the game and then I will take out the trash" and then 45 minutes later the game is still going because the game went into overtime? Answer: Most likely not; you will get the if looks could kill look and who knows what else.

Can you control how your boss is going to feel on the day of your review? Most definitely not. You hope that (s)he is going to be in a good mood, but you never know. The best that you can hope for is that you did your best at work and your efforts will be rewarded.

What you can control, more or less, is yourself. You can't control how people are going to react to you, but you can control how you react to them. If you get mad because someone took your parking spot, the person who did most likely was not conscientiously trying to make you mad, but their action was not what you were expecting and you either conscientiously or sub-conscientiously chose to get mad. You let the other person's action take control of you. You can decide whether or not you want to get mad at something trivial. A lost parking spot is not that big of a deal and definitely not worth getting mad about. Take back control of yourself.

You actually control very little of what happens in life. If you do what God wants you to do with happy heart, life is good because God is in control. It is not such a bad thing to not control everything when you know that God will.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. This is one thing you can control.

9/11

It has been six years since the world changed as we knew it.

The best thing I can think to commemorate this date in history is to do nice things for people throughout the day. Even if you normally do nice things for people, make sure to be a little more conscientious of it today.

Who You Are?

Do you know who you are?

Sometimes it is easier to figure out who you are by who you are not.

I am not a horse jockey and never will be. I think most horses would protest to having a 6'6" jockey riding it around for a 1 and 1/4 mile run.

I am not the world's fastest or strongest man. Just watch me on the basketball court.

I am not the smartest man in the world either. Just ask my wife.

For starters, I do know that I try to work hard and try to care about people and do the right thing the majority of the time. The rest, I try to figure out as necessary.

So, do you know who you are and who you aren't?

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. This act will show people that you are at least a kindhearted person.

Mundane

Mundane. Ordinary. Commonplace.

Most of the time people like excitement. They don't care too much for the boring and mundane.

There are certain situations when boring and mundane is just fine. For example, flying on an airplane or having surgery are events that I really hope and pray for ordinary and mundane.

My wife had a procedure done yesterday to remove some infectious fluid from around her pituitary gland. To make a long story short, the procedure/surgery was very mundane. Today she is actually feeling pretty good for the first time in about 8 weeks.

Having a mundane day is not such a bad thing.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. It could be as simple as helping them get through a boring day.

Attitude

Attitudes are contagious.

Control your attitude so it does not control you.

A good attitude goes a long way.

The more positive your attitude, the better chance positive things are going to happen to you.

I'm a big believer in good begetting good.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. Your positive attitude could rub off on that someone.

Clean Up

Doo Doo Happens!

You are not special when it happens to you. You are not not special because it happens to you.

What makes you special is how you clean up after it happens.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. They might need help cleaning up after it happens to them.

Be a Better Speaker

Know your audience. Make sure that you speak in a language that they understand.

If you are speaking to a computer geek, you can use as many TLAs (Three Letter Scronyms) as you want and the person will probably understand your jargon. But if you are a computer geek and you are trying to talk to your mom about computers, you better speak in a plain language or else you are going to lose her at "Yo." [Pun on "you had me at hello."]

Also, make sure that you don't speak to a rocket scientist like you would your mom. The rocket scientist will be bored beyond tears.

Know your topic. Make sure you don't talk about things you know very little about.

Know when to be serious and when you can be comical. It takes experience.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. Share some knowledge with them about something you know a lot about. And speak to them so they can understand and not be bored.