Are you a person who easily listens and responds to instruction, direction, advice or guidance? Most people aren’t; most of us struggle against those who try to inspire, discipline, encourage or outright set up boundaries for us. It is human nature to say, think, or feel…It is my life; I make my own decisions. Ultimately that is true …we are the ones who have to live with our choices both good and bad.
If you are a person who is self-disciplined, careful, wise and tends to lean towards making good decisions with relatively positive outcomes…Congratulations! However, if you know yourself to, more often than not, err on the side of poor choices and impulsive decision making, which results in a negative outcome; then beware…it will destroy you. It will destroy you; if, you do not heed the advice, guidance, discipline and boundaries set up for you by people who know what they are talking about; and, who love you & genuinely care about what happens to you!
I know we all want to be independent. We all want to be free to choose the path that we find ourselves on, in life; that is just a given. However, have you ever known someone who was their own worst enemy when it came to decision making? They may have said all of the right things about their goals, their dreams and their intentions…but, when it came right down to it…their actions did not match up to their talk.
Oh I know…someone reading this is thinking that it is all about maturity levels…and yes, that may be true for some. On the other hand, I know that all too often; people destroy themselves and their goals by their thought patterns or mindset. Some just can’t seem to help it. Their past experiences or relationships have set them up to fail; some of them with mindblowing bells and whistles mingled with breathtaking fireworks. When they fail, they fail big…almost in comparison to their large hopes and dreams. It is frustrating. Maybe their intentions were good…but when it came right down to it…they didn’t have the discipline to make it happen, or, they were trying to achieve something that was outside of their ability.
Perhaps, their judgement was influenced by an addiction to drugs or alcohol, by negativity, or by a fear of success/failure. In those cases, it is important to have someone by their side who is invested in them as a person…someone who believes in them and what they are trying to accomplish. They need to have someone on their side of the fence who is successful, skilled, goal minded…someone who they can trust. They need an attitude of I am willing to listen and learn; and a desire to practice what I’ve been taught.
Trust is a big issue. If the person who is giving advice is someone who has a good track record with decision making, with success, and with their best interest at heart…they are worth listening to. You can retrain yourself to make good decisions and to have confidence with your choices; with the end goal of achieving success. You may need to give up a little control for a time…allow yourself to mentor or learn from someone that you admire and respect, in the areas of your life that you are trying to be successful in.
It is important to realize that you need to focus on overcoming the obstacles that are in your way. Rebellion, resistence to proper guidance or instruction is often at the root of failure; people want to do things their own way. Laziness and a poor work ethic combined with all of those negative qualities that we have already talked about will surely destroy you and your goals. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can do what you set out to do. You can make great decision with wonderful results. You can start setting new track records by allowing yourself the opportunity to learn and grow; no one is born knowing the right thing to do, all of the time. It takes time and experience to recognize your strengths and weaknesses.
Part of personal development is learning what your strengths and weaknesses are. Learning to find ways around your weaknesses by teaming up with others who have strengths in those areas where you are lacking…building up and growing your areas of strengths. This most certainly can be done. You can learn to trust your decisions once you examine your values, skills and talents and personality gifts and deficets. This is a life long test of personal courage. Those in authority above us have to be of the strongest morals and values; and trusted in the areas of leadership. They must be able to communicate in an encouraging and educational way to inspire and make a positive impact on those around them. Only put yourself in the hands of someone who you can look in the eye and respect. Authority figures are not all bad; be open to those around you who are willing to teach you and have your best interest at heart!
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