Bryan Parady's Blog, page 46

Finding Your Way

Do you ever feel like you are headed in direction and you don’t even know where it leads?  Or rather you feel you’ve taken a detour and it’s led you very far from where you want to be?

The truth is it’s not too late to get back on track.  No matter where you are in your life you can make steps towards your dream.

I don’t say this lightly, I have had the tendency to fall into the “too late” trap.  I’ve felt sometimes that I’ve missed my shot, but that’s so not true.  It’s taken me too long to realize that I have to take control of where I am today, and not dwell on the past, not be depressed that such and such didn’t happen earlier.

I can’t change the past, I can’t change what has happened, I can only do something about getting closer to  my goal today.  And regardless of whether something is hard, or takes a lot out, if it’s something I really want I will work at it.

It’s never too late, and nothing is impossible. Be brave.

Don’t Listen

There are a million voices in this world.  Everyone talks and everyone has an opinion.  This is especially true when you step out to do things that are not common.

Common things get praise from people, while the uncommon is shunned or looked down upon.

Throughout your life people will have an opinion on what you should do with your life.  If you stray from that, often you will hit resistance.  Far too often this is because many people are afraid to step out and pursue their dream.  Perhaps they tried once and got hurt, or perhaps it wasn’t permitted among the circle they were raised in.

Regardless of why people will doubt what you are doing.  Stay true to yourself.  Only you truly know what is in your heart to do, only you know the why.  Live it out and live life loud.

Don’t listen to naysayers, listen to what you truly want to do.

Relentless

To say my daughter is a tough little girl would be an understatement.  At 19 months old she is small for her size, but what she lacks in height she makes up for in determination.  She is incredibly active and doesn’t seemed to be phased by being hurt, scrapes, bumps and other accidental knocks she shakes off as if they are nothing. She doesn’t meet a stranger and absolutely loves going out anywhere and everywhere.

Tonight she was continually pulling herself up the back of our couch with her arms.  The back of our couch is taller than her, but somehow she managed to pull herself up about seven or eight times.  She fell a couple times, whimpered a bit then tried again.

She is relentless with doing hard things.

How many of us lose that as adults?  We try something once and if we fail, we tend to give up entirely.  It’s a bad habit to get in.  We become afraid of failure, afraid of looking dumb, or looking incompetent to others.

What is the wall you want to climb in life?  If you truly desire to get up and over the wall, don’t stop trying, don’t take no for an answer.  Prepare for defeat, and take it as a lesson learned of how not to get over the wall.  But what ever you do, don’t let the bumps and falls keep you from trying.

The hits will come from all different directions in life, but it’s how you respond to them that determines where you make it in life.  Go after it, and be relentless.

Fighting Through

 

I love Lord of the Rings.  I’ve been a fan since I was little, even long before the movies. The battle of Helm’s Deep in the Two Towers is by far my favorite part of all three movies.  Yes I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to Lord of the Rings.

I absolutely love so many themes in it though.  For starters there is the purpose and mission everyone has.  Nothing is ever doubted when it comes to doing good.  Good is good and evil is evil, a line that is often blurred these days not just in Hollywood and the media, but even in day to day life.

Even more than that though, is the fight.  The odds are incredibly stacked against every “good” character.  From a “practical” standpoint, they are all doomed from the get go.  Yet they don’t let that stop them.

We need to have that outlook on life.  So many people will try to tell us we will fail, that we can’t do something, but regardless of what they say we have to go into it knowing the odds are against us, but that we can overcome them.

Courage

I found the picture with this blog and it really hit home.  This is so incredibly true.  How long to we deliberate over a decisions and then often never even make one, and the opportunity passes us by, or we just delay long enough to where we just give up on he idea.

Making a decisions is an instant decision. It takes no time at all.  Yet making tough decisions in the moment is one of the hardest things we will ever do.  Some decisions are easy to make, some are life altering.

The key is to make a decision.  It might be hard, and it might mean some intense and serious changes, but you have no idea what you might miss out on by not making the decision.  So go after it, and see what great things may come.

I Confess

I confess that I like doing things the safe way, the way I know.  Things that disrupt my normal schedule have a tendency to freak me out….or rather had.  Over the past couple years I have learned to enjoy the unknown.  While I’m not totally at ease with it, I still find it to be interesting, and more exciting than simply routine on a daily basis.

Routine can be good and we all have to have it to a degree, but it can completely stifle us to where we forget what is important and we forget who we are.  We become robotic people simply going through the motions.

We can’t let the routine stuff and the “little” stuff of life to get us down or get us blind-folded into believing there is nothing more to life than our four walls and our own home. Our home is a great place, but we aren’t meant to simply live inside our four walls and make our castles and raise our children without leaving the house.

We were meant to lead, to create, to inspire, to help, to serve, and to build.  And while some of that can go on in our own home, we are meant to take those things into the world.

Humbleness

I’ve seen a lot of stuff going around facebook lately involving some famous ministers/preachers.  I’ve read some articles, watched some videos, and heard some things that have disturbed me.

I think there is a certain stance that many preachers take that is extremely dangerous.  This stance isn’t just reserved for preachers, but for a lot of people in leadership.

Somehow many leaders get into this pretense that everything they say is right, nothing is wrong, and they think they are the final say on everything.

I think where most leaders stray is that they begin to think they are right in everything, they lose sight that they need to still learn, they still need to accept that they don’t have everything together.

It’s a lesson we all need to learn. None of us are above reproach, none of us are above falling short.  And when we put ourselves on a pedestal and stop being humble, that is the first step downwards.

We have to stay humble.  There is always more we can learn, and we never have everything figured out.

Take the Leap

 

How many times have you said, or heard someone say, “if only I were younger,” or “if only I had done this”.  If only’s are a waste of time.  I say this because I am prone to have this mentality.  I am learning (however slowly), that it is a complete waste of time.

We spend all this time fretting over something in our minds.  We tell ourselves all the reasons we can’t do something rather than all the reasons we can.  We look at the negative first, instead of last.

We have so much potential if we just allow ourselves to dream and dream big. We could truly do anything if we determine to do it.  No matter your age, no matter your circumstance.

George Bernard Shaw said it very well: “The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.”

Make your dreams come true today.

 

Have Fun

 

I talk a lot about going after your goals and working hard and having determination. But there is another element that has to be there in order for you to hit your goals and dreams.

It’s fun.  If you aren’t excited about it, then it’s not the right thing for you.  When you do the things you love it won’t even feel like work, it will be a blast.  You will look forward to it, and you will have fun.

In fact if you aren’t enjoying it that’s a sure tell sign that you may want to reconsider what you are doing.

We have to enjoy what we do, we have to enjoy life, and have fun sometimes.

So love what you do, even if you aren’t able to fulfill your dream right now, read up on it, and explore it in whatever way you can.  Have fun where you are at.

 

Think Big

 

Have you ever had a problem of thinking too small?  I have a tendency to do this.  My wife is great about letting me know when I am limiting myself with small thinking, and pushing me to think outside the box (no pun intended).

I’ve found this is a pretty common tendency among people.  We tend to limit ourselves, to think too small.  We see problems, or have dreams, but limit ourselves because we think they are too unrealistic, or too impossible.

But in truth if everyone thought like that we would be without of a lot of great things.  The automobile, the internet, electricity.  We wouldn’t have tons of great inventions if everyone limited their thinking.

There isn’t something too big or too small to do.  Everything is obtainable if you try hard enough and work hard enough.

Your dreams aren’t crazy and your ideas are not dumb.