Ugh

I see depressed people.

And it’s kind of sort of messing with my Zen. Make it stop! Make it stop!

Ugh!

I had a conversation with someone recently – a young lady I mentor occasionally – in which I mentioned there seems to be a poverty mindset around here. I don’t know that we’re really geographically unique in that phenomenon, but it’s people with that kind of a mindset who have been discouraging her from getting out and seeing the world, making her own decisions, and just bettering herself in general.

Seriously … who died and made them king of anything???

Poverty. Depression. Negativity. They all like to keep people down. Misery loves company.

A lot of people are resistant to change and they want to justify their own inertia. The object-at-rest kind, that is.

I recommend being an object in motion.

A que sera sera attitude, a bury-your-head-in-the-sand approach, a let’s-pull-the-covers-over-our-heads-and-hope-everything-blows-over way of life … I see it way too often. Good grief, people are afraid even to dream any more. Too many people let things happen to them instead of going out and making things happen.

I wonder if some are just kind of biding their time until they see their reward in heaven. If you’re a believer … there will be pain and suffering in this world and all that … just gotta make it through. There’s a different way to look at that, though. If you really believe you’ve been granted eternal life … hello, you’re living it now. Act like it!!! J

Those who have the capability to be great and choose not to exercise it … never cease to amaze me. And frustrate me, too. I feel for those who genuinely need help. I’m all for helping them. But those who quit and quit and quit and quit …

I have failed at all kinds of things. But people seem to regard me as successful. I fail all the time. I just don’t quit.

Maybe it’s the German Irish heritage. Stubborn with a temper. (Either that or I’m supposed to like potatoes and beer. Potatoes, yes. Beer, not so much.)

Maybe it’s just by the grace of God and my past experiences that I don’t put up with a lot of, um, stuff from people. Negativity! That’s the word! I don’t put up with negativity. We all need to vent, me included, but at some point I like to say, “OK, well, I feel better. Onward.”

Being in the business of inspiring people to change, I often feel like an amateur psychologist. Psychologists, counselors, clergy … they’re subject to being brought down by the negative forces they encounter daily. Think about it … if you spent all day every day listening to negative, depressed people … well even the strongest among us needs a vacay from all that now and again.

The people who get that there’s a better way … the people who are ready for positive change … honestly, they inspire me back. I love it when God sends me some of those at just the right time.

His timing is perfect after all.