“When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.
I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.
When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.
Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.”
Author: unknown monk around 1100 AD
Growing up I had anger management issues. It took very little to set me off. I never was the kind of person to go looking for a fight, but if I had a reason, I never backed down; I progressed eagerly. My fuse was definitely considered to be very short. For everything that I disliked in my life, I certainly was not the problem in my eyes. It was because of my boss, my parents, where I lived, my young age, my construction job, my lack of education, etc. I was the last one to blame.
When I started on a journey of personal development over 10 years ago, it started to shape and mold my life. I learned from OPE (other people’s experiences) and that started to drastically change everything in my life… my associations changed, my outlook changed, my habits changed, my goals changed, my confidence changed, it ALL changed.
Angry days that were completely ruined started to get shorter and shorter, and the frequency of those days became less and less frequent. Fastforward to today, I have what most would consider a very long fuse, I look for the positive in every situation, I rarely have an angry day and if I do, it’s usually a moment, not a day.
In life, we are like a banana… we are either getting ripe or are getting rotten. I choose to stay on the side of ripening every single day. My question for you is what are you becoming? If you continued to develop the way that you did yesterday, what and who would you become 3 years from now? Decide to immerse yourself in personal development. Get a good book and read 10 pages a day and listen to 15 minutes a day of positive audio. You, and those around you, will be astounded at what and who you become. And then you can change your family for the better, which can change your community for the better, which can change the nation and ultimately the world.
For a list of books that I have read and enjoyed enough to share, visit and follow the Books I’ve Read Pinterest board.
