The Strong Within Affirmation Podcast
Education:Self-Improvement
389 I Treat Small Matters With Great Respect | January 2018 Wednesday Week 4
Wisdom Wednesdays-#389 January 24th The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast
I Treat Small Matters With Great Respect
“Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.”
~Blaise Pascal
Working harder for something doesn’t always mean we are working smarter for something. It doesn’t always mean we’re working in the best way. Take a moment to think about a time where you put all your effort into something and you didn't get the return that you were expecting?
Ask yourself, why you didn’t get it…but take a deeper look rather than saying it wasn’t meant to be, or you weren’t talented enough, or that someone kept you from it. Ask what’s the deeper reason behind all those easy answers. Ask what you could’ve done differently to help you change the outcome.
For me, I think about sports. Playing ice hockey for a good portion of my younger life I dedicated myself to the pursuit of being better. I’m a shorter guy, so a lot of people didn’t give me the credit I deserved, so I earned it. I was faster, I was scrappier, and I trained harder and longer than most of my teammates. Now I am not saying I would’ve ever made it pro, I wanted to go pro, but the reason I didn’t go pro or play to a higher caliber than I did was from how I forced myself to become better. I worked hard, and I pushed myself past my limits, which were a great thing, but I didn’t believe I could make it to the level I dreamed about, and so I sabotaged myself the whole way.
I told myself how I was worthless, how I was nothing, how I would never be strong enough, or good enough. I did it because I thought that the boot camp mentality of breaking myself down would make me stronger…but it did the exact opposite. It broke me down, and I didn’t have a contingency plan to build me back up. And so I lived my life as a lot of us do, broken and confused, hoping that if we work hard enough, that if we force the pieces together…then things will happen.
Now I want you to hear me clearly, working hard isn’t the problem. It’s how we work; that’s what the problem is. We see the goal in the future, and we want that goal, so we set out to achieve it. We force hard work. We make it about the end goal instead of making it about the betterment of self along the way.
And so we disillusion ourselves by forcing the work, hoping to get to the end as fast as possible. We get upset at the mistakes we make and try to avoid the mistakes, or get past them as fastly as possible—never truly learning from the mistake. We look at the work as the obligation and the mistakes as the scars along our journey. But scars are meant to remind us about the things we went through, not just a lashing upon our bodies, minds, and souls. And so we trap ourselves in a mental loop, thinking that the work is separate from ourselves. That the work is something we do to get something, instead of the work is done to become something.
Think of it this way, I was speaking to someone about their week and I asked them how it was going. They went on to tell me that they were unsure what they wanted for their week. They wanted it to go faster so the weekend would hurry up and come, but also for it to slow down so they could get more done. And I know we are not our jobs, but there’s confusion in thinking that we are only working to make a paycheck. Yes, you may not be in your calling, but your calling won’t always be your job. And one of the greatest callings you will have, will be making the most of your moments that you’re in… no matter how crappy, how hard, or how unfortunate it may be.
We wait for the spotlight to shine so we can have our moment. All the while, never realizing we are the spotlight. That the monotony of the work isn’t the problem; it’s our attitude that needs to be worked on. Yes, you may be destined for greater things than just the small dealings of life. But when we treat the small, seemingly minor, and unimportant tasks of life as nothings, we will then treat the bigger things with improper respect as well.
Basically how we treat one thing will be how we treat another. How we do anything in this life is how we do everything.
I’ve spent most of my life waiting for the great things to come my way, thinking if I worked hard enough, or I waited long enough that they would find me. But the great things were already here, I just had my eyes focused on the wrong thing. I thought great things meant big things. I thought that the great things were the goals in the future…and so I lost perspective of my life.
People dream of winning the lottery. Every time the lottery gets up to a new high number tons of people go out to buy a ticket, and they talk about what they would buy if they won the big jackpot. People think winning the lottery will change their lives. And it will, but maybe not how you thought it would.
A friend of mine was telling me about an article they read about past lottery winners in how it actually ruined their lives. They spent all their money too fast and went bankrupt. Which seems so crazy to us, but when you are spending a million here or a million there on things it can go pretty fast. You don’t have a respect for money like you once did, if you ever did, because you didn’t have to earn it…you just bought a ticket worth a few dollars. And the other thing that happens with lotto winner is it ruins their relationships. The article talked about everyone they knew starts hounding them for money. And that’s why I stay poor and ugly, so I know people truly love me for who I really am.
But in all seriousness, we treat our lives like the lottery. And when we can’t learn to respect the smaller wins in life, and we’re always looking to win the big jackpot, we miss some beautiful things along the way. We then take life for granted as we don’t learn to respect life like it deserves. The small things become big things. The small things are what prepare us to be able to hold onto those bigger things we dream of.
So go and win your lottery, but know the lottery wasn’t in the luck of buying a ticket, it was in putting in the daily work, the daily grind, it was learning from the mistakes to become better, and it was in respecting the smaller tasks and things in our lives…to help us respect the bigger things that will come our way. Because if we can’t see the beauty in the small amazing things in our lives now…what makes you think you’ll be aware enough to see the bigger things when they do come into your life? You’ve probably already missed a few of them by keeping your eyes up in the clouds instead of keeping them focused in the now. And that would be a shame because your life is literally…flashing before your eyes. And not in a good way…unless you are purposefully trying to miss the best parts of life.
Today’s Personal Commitment:
During your day write down all the things you did, big and small. At the end of the night take a look at your list and ask how you handled the smaller things? Did you treat them with the respect they deserved?
When I talk about noticing the beauty in life, being mindful of the moment and the small things that we take for granted, people may think that I am talking about being serious and so anal about everything that happens to us. But really what I am hoping that this helps you do is to awaken you to what you’ve been missing out on.
So after looking at your list, instead of getting upset or beating yourself up for not treating the small matters with great respect…what if you asked yourself what would happen if you treated those smaller things with more importance. What would happen immediately…and what would happen longer term in being more mindful of those smaller matters?
I Treat Small Matters With Great Respect
Thanks for listening. I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn
Contact info- email: chris@strongwithin.com phone:865-219-3247
Music by:
- Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
- I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
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