Satisfaction Factor 101

Follow your heart. Follow your impulse.

Steve Jobs, Apple Inc Founder has a great quote about this very thing. He says, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.  Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice, and most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.  They somehow already know what you truly want to become.  Everything else is secondary”

Basically he’s saying to be true to yourself, YOUR heart, YOUR dream, YOUR desire and not someone else’s.  You’ll never find happiness chasing someone else’s vision of what they want and desire for you.  Only when you follow you own vision will you find the satisfaction and happiness that you not only desire but deserve?

You need to listen to you inner voice of wisdom and follow the impulse where it leads.  How do you know if it’s right for you?  That’s easy.  It feels right.  Pay attention to how it makes you feel. If you have even the slightest hesitation or negative gut reaction it won’t make you feel good about yourself. It means you’re not being true to yourself.  Follow your impulse, instinct call it what you will.  Only by following where it leads will the happiness and satisfaction you seek be yours.

Make the Most of What You Have

Making the most of what you have is exactly what Michael Oher the NFL player did. Who would have thought that scoring within the 98 percentile for protective instincts would lead to an NFL career?  That 98% instinct is what gave him the ability to protect the quarterback’s blind side.

Of course his journey didn’t come easy. He certainly didn’t start out life on easy street, on the contrary. It takes a lot of discipline and morals not to succumb to the pressure of the streets. It takes a lot of self perseverance to continue to move on with your life when you have no family to financially and emotionally support you. What kind of driving force does a person like that have to keep moving forward?  If those obstacles weren’t enough, he still had to overcome his lack of education before he could even think about playing any kind of sport but with the help of the Tuohy family and some key educators he became more than what he thought he could be.  So many people could see the heart behind the man that they took it upon themselves to help him out.

 

Football didn’t come naturally to him because he didn’t understand the game and what was required of his position.  Once he tapped into what he needed to do he was able to activate the key ingredient that makes him stand out, natural protective instincts.

Protective instincts are one of his greatest talents and he’s found a way to capitalize on it.  What’s your natural talent and how can you tap into it to shine like Michael Oher has on the football field?

Are we Breeding Responsibility or Dependency?

People will rise up to the expectations that you set for them.  Ask any good coach, manager or parent and they will tell you the very same thing. Sometimes athletes, employees and children can’t see the potential that lies within them but someone else can.  So the coach, manager or parent inspires and sometimes pushes the individual to aim higher, to be all that they can be.  Isn’t that what we’re here for, to be the best that we can be, to become better than the generation before us, to leave this place better than how we found it?

So what happened that a growing number of people think they’re entitled to government hand outs? What happened to honor, pride and self worth in working to provide for yourself and family? Remember when children were raised to become productive members of society, to give more - expect less, to have a sense of honor and integrity in what you do, to take responsibility for your actions, to strive to live up to your full potential and become a self-supporting adult, to ask what you can do for others not what others can do for you, where conning the system or any other entity was shunned, where being self supporting was respected and a badge of honor?

Oh! There are still people like that around however it’s become more acceptable to see what you can get away with than being a responsible adult. What’s in it for me has become more important than what’s best for mankind.

Now this didn’t just happen overnight.  It’s been brewing for quite some time.  The exact time frame is up for debate.  It was likely a combination of events and a mind shift that changed the core essence of what the US was founded on.

It happened slowing, bit by bit, whittling away a parent’s confidence that they needed to bow to the pressure of the so called professionals.  Parents feared they were damaging their children if they were too strict or disciplined them too harshly.  Worse yet, the children started hearing this type of thinking and used it as emotional blackmail to keep their parent’s from parenting. Some wise parents saw it for what it was while others bowed to their children’s threats and demands.  They were afraid they would lose their child’s love but instead they lost their respect.  Alas there went the best form of education, setting the example.  Let’s not forget that it’s the parents that have the greatest influence in a child’s life.

Now we have a growing number of our society that believes they should be taken care of.  Any slight discomfort is cause to blame someone or something else for their own lack of personal responsibility.  Hey! It’s easier to blame than actually doing what needs to be done. It’s a cop out.  In the long run the person looses out on building their self-esteem and growing as a person. They miss out on feeling good about themselves.

Teaching someone to be responsible is a never ending process. It takes patience and guidance to see it through but the rewards are well worth it. It not only benefits the individual but society as a whole.

My question is, with such a growing number of people believing they are entitled to hand outs, what happens when the number of responsible contributing members of society is outweighed by the entitlement society? Who will provide for what they believe they deserve?

It’s time to raise the expectations of all members of society, to stop asking what the country can do for you but what you can do for your country. 

You lost me at ^*% #%^$

Do you know when you’re winning an argument? When the other person is starting to lose it? It’s when the other person starts to raise their voice followed by yelling with possibly some swear words thrown in for good affect. If it escalates even further you have some type of violence towards person or property. It’s not a pretty sight. Basically, what has happened is the person who starts to raise their voice has let their emotions take over instead of allowing reason and logic to win their case.

Think about this for moment. Isn’t that exactly what happens in a bar fight, disagreement at work or social function? Why is it so hard to accept that another person’ viewpoint may differ from yours? It doesn’t make it wrong, just different. We all have our own worldview and everything is run through these filters first.

You will not be able to understand where someone is coming from unless you find out what made the person reach their conclusion. And how do you do that? You ask lot of questions and then listen for the response. Try to understand their answer from their point of view.

However, when you’re having a conversation and one or both person(s) becomes emotionally unhinged, the possibility of having meaningful dialogue has just been killed and the hope of reason returning will only occur when cooler heads prevail.

I bring this up in regards to the continuing protests. There’s nothing wrong with protesting but once it turns to violence the message has been lost. The focus then is on the violent action and not the protester’s message. Is that what the protesters really want?