Be Content With Yourself (1) By Dr. Michael Brooks
I love watching people as you know. It’s a hobby of mine that gives me some great story ideas. I find people fascinating and the way they interact with people. I see all kinds of people. I see children as they explore the world around them. I see teens who are trying to grab the world by its tail. I see adults just trying to figure things out.
I was watching an elderly couple help each other get through the local grocery store parking lot as they walked on ice. He held her arm as she balanced her way through patches of ice. They walked very slowly while you could see inpatient drivers waiting on them to get to their car. As the drivers drove around them you could tell this older couple was doing the best they could without falling on the ice. I wondered what they were talking about as hurried to their car. And what were the inpatient drivers thinking? This is part of the people watching I enjoy the most, “what are people thinking?”
A lot of people struggle with personal problems and you can see it in their yes and the way they behave towards people. Wouldn’t it amazing if you could see the problems people deal with if there was a cloud over their heads identifying the problems they were dealing with? For example, you have someone cut you off on a busy highway and you get angry. Then you sense that the reason you were cut off was because the couple was racing to the hospital to be by the bedside of a child that was hurt in an auto accident. Do you think you would be more understanding? I think you would!
I was going to a university hospital for a class one morning. My friend and I got on the elevator to go to the 4th floor as the door was closing a young couple raced to get into the elevator. She started to cry and was trying to hit the button that would take her to the third floor. It was the cancer ward and I figured she got the call that someone was ready to pass away. As the elevator stopped at the third floor and the doors opened the young couple raced out of the elevator as fast as they could. I knew that they were going to face some something bad. I felt helpless watching this couple leave the elevator.
Another area that I see is where couples or individuals will argue over silly things and in public. I have heard some rather interesting disagreements over the past several years. I heard a woman telling her friend “you don’t know anything about me, how could you say that?” I figure that when couples or friends have disagreements there needs to be rules and guidelines to follow. Here are some of my thoughts.
• Don’t judge me until you know me
• Do not underestimate me until you have challenged me
• Do not talk about me until you have talked to me
Very simple rules for being content with yourself and those people who you allow to be a part of your life. Being content doesn’t mean being self-righteous it means getting the stressors out of your life. If you have guidelines and live by them you’ll deal with most problems in a diplomatic way and be in control of those around you.
Finding what your purpose in life is only a step away!