Sometimes people tell you things, and they stick with you forever. These are a few of those such things which have stuck with me, and I thought they were worth passing on!
1. Use “I” statements when you’re angry.
Instead of saying, “You’re angering me,” try, “I am angered by you.” If you are angry with someone, don’t accuse them. Accusing someone does not typically help in diffusing a situation. If you are the one that’s angry, own up to your anger and express it as your anger.
2. You won’t find your faith until you begin to question it.
Questions are important and are necessary for development. If you blindly accept someone else’s ideals or practices, what good will they do you?
3. Don't hate Monday’s - they make up one-seventh of your life.
A psychology professor once told me this, and I think about it all the time. Every week, Monday comes around, and people complain about it, but to hate one-seventh of your life for no good reason is quite ridiculous if you think about it. It’s not Mondays, you hate, it’s your job.
4. Just because it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck does not necessarily mean that it’s a duck.
The saying originally goes, “if something walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck.” However, someone once said the opposite to me, and it threw me off. After thinking for a moment, it caused a small revelation in my head, which was not everything is as it seems to be. Someone may act a certain way, but it may not accurately show the essence of their being. It is easy to judge a person based on something they say or do, but usually, there is more than what meets the eye.
5. What Sally says about Susie says more about Sally than it does about Susie.
What you say about others says more about your heart than it does theirs. Be intentional with your words, for they have the power to dramatically shape your life and the lives of those around you. I like to talk, and it is very easy for me to let my mouth run too far sometimes.
6. Read your papers out loud before you turn them in.
This is rather straightforward, but it is unbelievably helpful. It is a lot easier to catch mistakes when you are saying every word out loud. It is also helpful having someone else read your paper out loud, giving you an opportunity to hear it through someone else’s voice, and it allows another perspective on your writing.
7. Recovery is not perfect.
There is a huge misconception about recovery that you will never miss the bad things, but the truth is that you will miss them every single day. Recovery is not missing it; it is about missing it but knowing it is not worth going back to.
While these are not ideas that I have mastered, they are ideas that changed my perspective in some form or another, and maybe you can learn something from them too.
