Bryan Parady's Blog, page 33

Don’t Worry

Have you ever reached a moment where what you’ve been striving towards no longer holds any appeal to you?  Perhaps you’ve been working hard at moving up the ladder at work only to realize you don’t enjoy your work.  Maybe you are about to graduate with a degree in a field that you don’t want to go in to.

Maybe you just moved but are miserable in your new city or town.

You are not alone, and there is nothing wrong with you.  It’s only as we try out new things and go after our dreams that we narrow our vision for what we truly want.  It’s only by trial and error that we discover what we love and what we don’t.

All the pre-contemplation in the world won’t let you know whether you are making the right decision, only getting out there and actually doing it will.

So if you find yourself rethinking everything you are doing, don’t worry, because you are discovering yourself.  It’s a good thing.

The Wonder

My daughter loves life.  She wakes up happy every morning and races around our home smiling and laughing.

It doesn’t take much to entertain her.  Some small household item that she has never seen before can fascinate her.

She loves to go outside, she grabs her shoes at random times during the day in hopes we can go outside.

She has a sense of wonder over everything.

I want to live more like that. I want to see the wonder in everything.  Because it is there.  It’s just that familiarity tends to stifle that wonder, and I begin to take things for granted.

But how much more exciting is life when I specifically try to find the wonder in everything. Don’t simple things then become extraordinary? Isn’t it far worth it?

I want to see everything as if it’s the first time.  I want to see the world with wonder.

Challenge Each Other

I have a tendency to struggle with friendships.  The reason is I don’t easily allow myself to get close to people.  It’s an issue I have that I am trying to get over. One of those things where you get hurt when you are younger and so you think the best thing is just to not care anymore.

But that’s the worst thing.  It’s taken me awhile but I am realizing the importance and value of friends.  The Bible states that iron sharpens iron, and so it should be in friendship.

Now there are definitely times when you need to cut out certain friends because they are influencing you in a way you don’t need to be influenced.

But quality friends should encourage one another, should challenge each other. Should ask the tough questions.

Even Jesus had his close 12 friends. He confided in them, challenged them, and encouraged them.

So if you are afraid like me of friendship, don’t be. Healthy friends can really help grow you as a person.

 

Wish I Was With You

I wish I could see you today.  I miss you and hope you are having a good day.  This  marks our fifth Valentine’s day together and I am so glad I get to share it with you.  You are truly my best friend. I love you Heather Parady

Love…What Is it?

As we approach another valentines day love is in the air, or at least in the advertisements.  Whether you are a hopeless romantic or don’t believe in love, chances are you are being bombarded with the million ads and stereotypical shoulds and shouldn’ts.

But one thing we often fail to see is what love actually is.  It’s not flowers, it’s not sappy feelings, or even physical attraction.

You see, there are certain feelings and attraction that draw people together, but inevitable those things fade with time.  It’s a normal part of life that the emotional high will hit an all time low.  It happens….but that is not the end of the story.

In fact, it’s just the beginning.  Love is an interesting thing.  There is a reason on your wedding day you stand and make a covenant before God and other people. Why? You already know you love the person right?

You make that commitment because when you do hit those times that are “for worse,” and “in sickness” love is not a feeling anymore, it’s a decision, those vows help us to remember that.

There are times in your relationship you won’t feel like loving who you are with.  There will be things that you do to each other to hurt each other, unintentional as they may be, they will still hurt.

But choose to love.  Through the good, and through the bad.  Through the smooth days, and the lightning storms.  You will find that by choosing to love, even when it is really hard, you will become closer and even more in love.

Love is sacrificial, it’s not all about you. It’s not about feeling good all the time. Sometimes you will feel like crap, but still strive to love.  It’s not about you, make the other person feel like they are the only person in the world.  Regardless of whether it is easy.

Remember that no one is perfect, think of the screw ups you have done.  Offer grace.

I think one of the biggest pitfalls we get into is thinking that we would just be happy if we were with someone else.  Then we find that once we are with that person, we are back to being miserable again.  This is because the problem isn’t someone else, the problem is in ourselves.  We have a lot of selfishness and wants that in order to experience true and lasting love, we have to let go of our wants sometimes.

Love may not always be fireworks like the media and advertisements may try to fool you into thinking, but it can be more rewarding than anything you’ve ever known.

Sticking With It

 

 

 

Nothing that is truly rewarding or worth having comes without a cost.  This may seem unfair and kind of hard at times, but it is good, because it makes us realize how much we truly want what we are chasing after.

Achieving our goals and getting to where we want to go takes work, it takes sweat and tears sometimes. But it is attainable.  Anything is attainable if you work hard enough and long enough towards it.

The key is digging in deep for the long haul.  There is no such thing as an overnight success story.  The things you don’t know is that the overnight successes were years in the making and the success they achieved was only possible due to very hard work.

Don’t be afraid of meeting with failure.  Don’t be afraid failing, that is normal.  Keep going.  Move through hardship, move through challenges, and move past all opposition, and you will hit your goal.  Don’t every give up.

Hold On

Sometimes life can feel like it’s shoved us off a cliff, like we are holding on for dear life.  It can be an extremely scary place to be.  We feel like everything we’ve known and held close have been stripped away, and we are exposed on the side of a cliff, hanging on to an old frayed rope.

During these times what we often can’t see is that just below us is a ledge. A ledge that will give us secure footing with no fear of falling.

There is no such thing as a place where there is no more hope.  There is always still hope.  There is always a new path, it just may take us looking at things differently than we ever have before.

Being at that point where we are holding on for dear life is an opportunity to find something new and wonderful.

Yes it’s scary, but don’t let the fear keep you from an amazing new journey.

Being Wrong

 

Sometimes I’m wrong.  Just flat out missed the mark.  It happens.

It’s really easy in failing to think that I’ve screwed up beyond hope, that there’s no point in me trying again.  Easy to wonder if other people now look down on you.

Think about it, when you trip or run into something, what’s the first thing you do?  Look around to see if anybody saw you?  Why?  We don’t want to look stupid.  We want to look like we have it all together.

But to truly succeed I’ve got to be comfortable with failing, comfortable with being wrong.

Being wrong provides an opportunity to be viewed as human.  Yes I was wrong, this is what I can do differently now.  We learn from mistakes.  We become stronger, and more well rounded.

Admitting we are wrong in a situation allows others to impart their knowledge if we remain open, and lose our defensiveness.

So stay open.  Try tons of things.  You will mess up more frequently the more you try things, this is okay, it means you are making progress. Stick with it.

Break Through

Sometimes it feels like we are standing on the edge of something.  The edge of our dream, our goal, a relationship, a job offer, business deal etc.

When we are faced with big decisions we tend to always ask the question what if?  We don’t really look at the good that may come, we just focus on the negative. What if this goes wrong?  What if I fail?  What if I look stupid?

Most of the fears in your mind will never happen.  They just do one thing, keep you from breaking through.

If you want great things to happen, you have to take great risks, great chances, great leaps of faith.

If you don’t step through the curtain you will never know if success was lying just on the other side of it.

It’s kind of like this.  Let’s say you are on a game show.  And you have won 50 bucks.  You have a chance of seeing what’s behind door number 2, which either is a brand new car or nothing.  If you don’t take the chance, sure you will get to keep the 50 bucks, but you will always wonder if you could have had a new car.

You might lose a little, but what you could gain is so much more worth the risk.  Bust through whatever you have to and chase after success.

Walk With Confidence

 

Walk with confidence. You’ve got this.  No really, you do.  We are often so afraid of failing in life that we don’t even allow our talents and abilities to shine through.

It’s easy to get completely caught up in feeling you are wrong, that you don’t even set out to try.

Sure if you don’t try, then you won’t fail.  But you will also never do anything either.

You don’t have to be afraid though.  You can boldly walk in confidence knowing you have what it takes. Knowing the world’s knowledge is yours for the taking.

You have access to the minds of those who have gone before you both through the internet and through books. There is no excuse for you to not try.

You can learn anything you set your mind to and therefor can do anything.  Sure failure will come with it, but so will success.