Happy Sunday Everyone:
After this Sunday Thoughts I’ll stop talking about Facebook and overcoming my fear of putting these thoughts out there…but just had to do one more now that I’ve officially “done it”. I’m glad I did it, I’m grateful for the positive feedback, and have no regrets. My biggest fear in doing it in the first place was the feeling of being judged by so many, especially the personal friends. At the risk of sounding like a total wimp, my emotional sensories were, and are, on high alert…self-doubt, judgment, insecurities, etc…also the opposite….feeling strong, jumping out of my comfort zone etc….so why am I telling you all this? The majority of the individual responses from friends were incredibly positive but there were a few of the judges…”Tony Robbins JR. here we come”….”nice FB posting”. With a less than sincere smile, little jab here, little jab there. I’m not losing sleep over it by any means but in reflecting on it, I’m thinking how important it is to build people up, not to knock them down. When you’re on the receiving end of both, you’re acutely aware of how it feels. The lesson for me is twofold. On one side there is the inner strength we need to have to not be impacted by negativity, but that’s a bigger and harder fight than making the decision that we’re going to breath confidence in people by our actions and our words. I’m guilty of being a pretty hard dad, I think Kim would tell you the boys love me, and respect me, but I for one need to spend more time building them up. We all have the choice every day to squash someone or build them up…friends, spouses, kids, co-workers, strangers, everyone. I’ve commented on this before but Kim told me a long time ago, after having an issue with some friends who were just miserable to be around, she said “there are people in our lives who give us energy, and there are people who take it way”. Such a simple concept, and the answer of course is you always want to be hanging around with people that give you energy, but the bigger question is what side of that fence do you sit on if someone was thinking about you? I’m going to work on being less sarcastic, less judgmental, and telling no one why they can’t do something.
Have a great week!!