A moral equation
Pride: noun. a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.
Honesty: noun. freedom from deceit or fraud.
Pride and honesty are two very powerful characteristics that play major roles in my life. I was raised to be prideful in anything that I do. I was also raised to be an honest citizen. Although I may not have been consistent in portraying these traits 100 percent, I strived to do so as much as possible.
Pride and honesty are traits I believe all human beings should posses, but can an imbalance of the two cause one to be immoral? -- Before I go any further, let me also define moral as the distinction between right and wrong within ones own ethical values. Keep in mind these are my own morals.-- Can someone's pride be too powerful that it causes their honesty to be questioned? I think it can. Sometimes we can't handle things in our life and we need help desperately, but we have too much pride to ask for assistance. This can cause the demise of our selves.
Pride is a trait that should be used to boost your confidence. However, what many people fail to realize is that the two are not the same. When we become too prideful, we tend to call it overconfidence and see it as a good thing, but too much pride in my opinion can cause us to be blinded to proper actions.
Recently, I allowed my pride to get the best of me. Brandon and I were taking care of some business and we decided that I should oversee the remainder of these affairs. Of course it became a tad overwhelming, and rather than ask for help from my brother and business partner, I kept it to myself trying to handle the situation on my own. Too much pride almost caused my company to take a loss. Thank God he stepped in at the right time. I felt embarrassed that I couldn't handle this on my own, but I was even more embarrassed that I wasn't honest with Brandon or even myself. Too much pride in the beginning caused me to have no pride in the end.
This is a prime example of my moral equation:
pride - honesty = failure
I know you're thinking that you won't fail every time with this equation, but if you do not achieve an honest and ethical success, you haven't achieved real success. Don't base anything in your life on lies.
I love the definition of honesty that I used above. Freedom from deceit or fraud. Powerful. Don't be so prideful that it causes you to be a fraud.
Until next time my peeps.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Monday, July 1, 2013
Read me Right
People say that they can tell how you feel just by observing your body language and by your facial expressions. There are even studies that go deep into the connections between humans and their personas.
Typically, a smile equals happiness
a frown equals dissapointment or sadness
Etc. Etc. We've learned these things growing up through our childhood years through observations and experience. This was when our emotions were raw and untouched. An open book eagerly searching for someone to read us, yelling to the world, "Understand me! See how I feel."
I admire, and sometimes envy, how children so openly show their emotions without the thought of someone judging them. They normally do not care. A few hours ago, my 4 year old neice, Christal, called me all the way from Jacksonville. She has a sore throat. Her mother was trying to get her to gargle salt water to help soothe the burning. Christal, being ignorant to the thought of salt water helping her, was puzzled. She was questioning her mother with the look of disbelief, and she insisted on calling me to see if I knew that this crazy idea of warm salt water would actually help her. Of course she refused to do it until she spoke to me to gain reassurance, which I gave her.
I think this was amazing. I love how she had the boldness to question, and reveal the thought that she did not agree, all the way down to the expression on her face. I hope she always has the unction to be bold. This is the boldness that we all had as children. We cried aloud when we were upset no matter where we were. We laughed when we were happy. We questioned, we disagreed. But what I have noticed, is that as we grew older, we developed the capacity to understand when people judge us, and we do not like it.
The result? Well, we hide our emotions. Suddenly, it's not ok to cry and let people know of your grief, or whatever you are going through. It has now been looked down upon when we disagree with the majority, and we tend to accept this new found idea. Am I saying that we should revert back to a state of transparency? Of course not. The thought that I am eluding to is that we should not fear every ones judgement over OUR lives. Don't let people judge you for feeling a certain way. Be free to express your self.
Sometimes your emotions are not worth hiding. You end up wasting too much energy, because believe it or not, The pain that you sometimes hide behind that smile is visible to the ones who love you. They can see it. These are the people who know you and want you to be real and almost child-like with them.
This past weekend, Envisionary did a photo shoot with three beautiful ladies.
Joselyn Hudson, Maysa Joachin and Mikayla Murphey. It was a fun day. I enjoyed their transparancy with our photographer, Brandon Cunningham, and myself. I truly appreciated how they let us capture the essence of their emotions with our camera, and I hope you do as well.
Until next time my peeps.
Typically, a smile equals happiness
a frown equals dissapointment or sadness
Etc. Etc. We've learned these things growing up through our childhood years through observations and experience. This was when our emotions were raw and untouched. An open book eagerly searching for someone to read us, yelling to the world, "Understand me! See how I feel."
I admire, and sometimes envy, how children so openly show their emotions without the thought of someone judging them. They normally do not care. A few hours ago, my 4 year old neice, Christal, called me all the way from Jacksonville. She has a sore throat. Her mother was trying to get her to gargle salt water to help soothe the burning. Christal, being ignorant to the thought of salt water helping her, was puzzled. She was questioning her mother with the look of disbelief, and she insisted on calling me to see if I knew that this crazy idea of warm salt water would actually help her. Of course she refused to do it until she spoke to me to gain reassurance, which I gave her.
I think this was amazing. I love how she had the boldness to question, and reveal the thought that she did not agree, all the way down to the expression on her face. I hope she always has the unction to be bold. This is the boldness that we all had as children. We cried aloud when we were upset no matter where we were. We laughed when we were happy. We questioned, we disagreed. But what I have noticed, is that as we grew older, we developed the capacity to understand when people judge us, and we do not like it.
The result? Well, we hide our emotions. Suddenly, it's not ok to cry and let people know of your grief, or whatever you are going through. It has now been looked down upon when we disagree with the majority, and we tend to accept this new found idea. Am I saying that we should revert back to a state of transparency? Of course not. The thought that I am eluding to is that we should not fear every ones judgement over OUR lives. Don't let people judge you for feeling a certain way. Be free to express your self.
Sometimes your emotions are not worth hiding. You end up wasting too much energy, because believe it or not, The pain that you sometimes hide behind that smile is visible to the ones who love you. They can see it. These are the people who know you and want you to be real and almost child-like with them.
This past weekend, Envisionary did a photo shoot with three beautiful ladies.
Joselyn Hudson, Maysa Joachin and Mikayla Murphey. It was a fun day. I enjoyed their transparancy with our photographer, Brandon Cunningham, and myself. I truly appreciated how they let us capture the essence of their emotions with our camera, and I hope you do as well.
Until next time my peeps.
Joselyn Hudson
Maysa Joachin
Mikayla Murphey
Strive
A wise man once said that life is all about moderation. How can we as humans ever have a peace of mind if we don't learn to be satisfied with ourselves ? This is the exact definition of complacency, again which is self-satisfaction or a feeling of contentment.
Now as most things, there are pros and cons to complacency. Picking up the attitude gives you a sense of peace, basically living with no worries about any external issues that may arise. This sounds good. I mean is this not what everybody wants to have at some point in their life ? Well this may be good for some people but to others it is dreadful disease adapted to a habit which eventually evolves into their character.
Complacency can eliminate every ounce of drive or motivation that you have inside. It basically removes your urgency to advance as a leader, employee, or just a person overall. It actually prohibits a person from growth because it keeps you thinking that there is nothing else to learn, and that you know everything needed to know. Education never stops, remember that. So never think that you know everything, because you really don't. If you ever want to reach your full potential then complacency is not the state of mind you want to have. It takes sacrifice, dedication, and motivation in order to reach to your full potential which cannot be attained if you think you know it all or you just get too comfortable.
The point of this blog is to tell you to strive to be the greatest, don't get comfortable with the average. Use all you got to get where you want to be. That will truly bring you peace of mind. Knowing your all was given.
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