Showing posts with label Hopeful. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hopeful. Show all posts

March 6, 2017

Respect The Disabled

So coming home tonight on the Metro train... 

People were switching trains in downtown D.C. 

Getting off from one train and going up the escalator to catch another. 

Every night people literally race up the escalator to catch their next ride. 

Some pushing their way on past the laggards. 

Others yelling for the people in front to "move it!"

Tonight, there was someone riding up the escalator on a wheelchair and holding unto to both sides to keep the chair from tipping over or literally rolling down backwards. 

(Usually the people in wheelchairs take the elevator and this was the first time I saw someone on the escalator riding it like this.)

So while I was expecting the people to start acting up on the escalator, running for the train on the platform.  

Instead, when they got to the wheelchair, they stopped and silently rode up with deep respect for the person holding himself steady.

There wasn't a peep or a shove. 

I could see people missing their train, but they were thankful for their health and respectful of the man in the wheelchair. 

Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised and proud that there is still some human decency out there and that is cause for hope. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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August 27, 2015

Become A HITFIT

A misfit is someone who doesn't fit in. 

He/she is missing the mark in terms of the thing or group they are trying to fit into.

The opposite of missing the target is hitting the target, hence a "hitfit" (my term)--someone who is in congruence with who he/she is and what they can do well. 

At times, we are all misfits--at work, school, places of worship, and even with family and friends--the personality, chemistry, and KSA (knowledge, skills, or abilities) are just not right.

Hence, people miserably fail in one environment or set of circumstance, but yet they thrive in others. 

What happens when you're the misfit?  

- You feel like you've been relegated to moron status, sitting in a corner or closet somewhere (and now envision the dunce cap on your head). 

- Essentailly everyone else seems to be meshing and doing great, but you're the odd man out. Nothing you seem to do is right, you can't perform or you just stop trying, and you feel like a worthless sh*t!

But then what happens?

- With courage, determination, and hard work, you pull yourself up by your trousers and you make a significant change in your life--your job, school, community, even your spouse or friends--you're the shinning star that you always knew or hoped you could be--you're the hitfit!

I've seen this happen again and again with people. 

Why?

So often people are not "bad," "stupid," or "losers"--they are just not in their groove for who they are. 

If you give people a chance to find themselves and leverage their strengths,. and strengthen (or challenge) their weaknesses, they can and will do superbly!

None of us are perfect (except G-d)--we are all frail human beings, even the strongest, smartest, fastest, and greatest among us. If you're put or find yourself in a bad situation--recognize your part in it, but also understand that sometimes it's just a misfit, and time to make a positive change in life. 

Do you research, test the waters, get primed, and find your hitfit and your happiness--you can do it, with G-d's help, everyone can! ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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May 23, 2015

Feeling It All

Feelings are one of those things that make us oh so human. 

We feel love and hate, joy and sadness, hopeful and anxious, peaceful and distraught, and countless more emotions. 


While some people come across as stoic, others seem to take it all in (maybe even right on the chin). 


Hence, the perennial stone-faced poker player verse the person who seems to show every emotion and just can't hide it. 


According to the Wall Street Journal, about 20% of both men and women are what's called highly sensitive people (HSPs).


HSPs simply feel everything more!


These are the people who are crying at the movies and so on. 


They can also be extremely empathetic and caring--because they just almost intuitively understand. 


I think they are also deep thinkers, they are watchers of people, taking in the stimuli and processing it in terms of their feelings. 


I remember as a kid sitting with my sister and her friends who were considerably older than me--8 years--and I would listen to their "mature" girl conversations go on and on, and then at the end, I would just sort of say my sensitive two cents, and I think more often then not, I got a lot of surprise looks at a young boy who seemed a lot older and wiser than his age. 


In retrospect, I think that I was always just very sensitive to people, their plights, their hurt, the injustices in the world, and sought to understand it and try to make it right. 


The flip side is that one schmuck of a manager years ago said to me, "You need to get a thicker skin!"


But you know what, I like feeling, being very human, and deeply experiencing the world.


I would imagine (having never tried drugs, true) that perhaps people who get high either are running away from some feelings or running to others--but as a HSP, you just feel it all straight up. 


Being very sensitive to the world can almost be like extrasensory perception...sometimes you can see what others don't, but you also have to learn to cope with the firehose flood of feelings--sometimes even having to tune some of it out. 


Cut me and I bleed, caress me and I am comforted.  ;-)


(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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October 21, 2014

Waiting For You To Succeed

I love this on the sidewalk this week. 

"The World is Waiting for you to SUCCEED!"

Encouraging, inspiring, motivational, hopeful, purposeful, future-oriented, and more. 

Too often we can focus on the negatives--how hard things are and can be; how many obstacles and challenges there are to getting somewhere; the many failures along the way; the bullies, naysayers, competition, and power-mongers who don't want us to succeed.

But think about it...

When we overcome all these (with G-d 's help), the world is waiting for our success--our contributions, our building blocks, our ideas, inputs, innovations, and creations.

When we succeed in advancing things (and not just doing for self), the world benefits!

We can have a purpose and meaning to our lives--we are part of something bigger and greater than ourselves and our mortality. 

Everyone has to do their part for the world to succeed. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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