Words to Live By.

I recently had a dilemma. Someone broke my trust in them, and it hurt–to my core.

Then it happened again. With a different friend. And again. And all of a sudden, I started saying things like, “People suck.” And thinking things like, “Ya can’t trust people.” and “No good deed goes unpunished.”
All of a sudden, it hit me! I was developing a poor mental attitude and what Tony Robbins calls, “Life Metaphors” that simply were NOT empowering to my spirit (or health).

So I had a choice to make. Do I allow myself to feel jaded, betrayed and bitter? Do I allow it to rip my heart and trust in people enough to change my attitude towards ALL other friends in the future? Do I build walls up, and not trust people, believing them to all have anterior motives? Do I let it change me… to my core… where I begin to act differently, because of the situations I endured?

Or… Do I continue to hold my beliefs and values about how I want to treat people with kindness – no matter what. Trust people no matter what? Give them the benefit of the doubt? Even if they’re trying to deceive me behind my back?  Do I simply shrug it off, and realize they’ve got the bigger cancer growing in their heart because of the choices and decisions they’ve made with others?

It seemed hard to do this. Choice #2 seemed like a heavy weight to bear. It seemed like I was allowing myself to be a patsy. Knowing the truth, and pretending it didn’t matter that I knew better, but just didn’t let on to it. Until I had an epiphany!

Here’s what I realized: If someone is lying to you, or has betrayed you, it’s THEIR issue. It’s also their pattern. It’s how THEY treat other people in their life. But it’s also their cross to bear in their heart of deception. If I allowed their actions to change my actions – they’d have the power and their deceptive ways will have successfully spread their cancerous cells to another human being in this world.

I had to make a decision. And once I realized that I needed to stick to my core values and simply, “Be Me” no matter what, I wouldn’t allow this to “teach me that people lie”.
I realized that when people lie, betray or deceive others, it means they’re weak, and scared. They’re doing it for their own benefit and protection. They don’t have the strength of character to be real or to exercise Total Truth, no matter what the consequences might be.

It’s not about me. It’s about what they’re trying to hide, and why they don’t want you to know about it. Or what their true feelings are in their heart. Until they make their own discoveries and have an epiphany that their deceptive ways don’t serve their higher purpose in life, then all I could do is sit back, and allow them to do what they do. And move on, while I attract others into my life who ARE committed to Total Truth – no matter what. And boy, I gotta say, when you practice being open and honest with people – it’s an amaaaazing feeling!

I guess it’s legit when they say, “The Truth Shall Set You Free,” because when you’re real with people, and honest about who you are – flaws and all… you attract people who truly know you. To your core. And that’s a feeling you can’t buy. True Freedom.

Ok, so I know I’ve gone over my one minute limit here. But Thanks for listening. I hope something I’ve said will inspire you to keep on keeping on. Even if you get hurt by someone. Or some people. There are still plenty of others who share your genuine spirit who will click with you in your commitment to living authentically. Just be patient. (Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself.)

In a nutshell – here’s your One Minute Motivator for the day:

Even if you get hurt, keep being YOU. Don’t change just because some people disappoint you. Instead, keep being true to what you value, and the beauty and people who share your values will be attracted to you. (instead of a jaded, altered version of who you are as a REACTION to mean people’s actions. And remember – People do the best they can with what they have. Some people truly don’t know any better. They haven’t been taught how to treat people with integrity and honesty – no matter what. We live in a cynical world. Many have learned that you must deceive in order to be accepted and get their needs met. You’re in their life to show them there IS a better way to live. #SoapBoxOver
Thanks for allowing me to share my Total Truth with you.

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”

– Norman Vincent Peale

“Be nice to people on your way up because you meet them on your way down.”

–Jimmy Durante

The Victor
By C.W. Longenecker

If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don’t
If you like to win but think you can’t,
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost.
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow’s will
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are.
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win the prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man.
But sooner or later, the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.

The Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
–Leo Tolstoy

Determination drives us to
Exceed our expetations while continuing to
Thrive within the challenges presented.
Exertion put forth
Rationalises our interior
Motives, while continually
Igniting the needed thrust to
Navigate to our
Astronomic hopes and dreams.
To sustain our determination we need to
Inspect and reflet on
Our past while
Negleting our doubts to charge to our endeavours.

–Michael John Steele

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” –Thomas A. Edison

The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch. –Jim Rohn