Daily Inspiration 1-7-19

"Criticism begins as a choice, 

and some make it a career." 

-- Albert K Strong 

[Classic post from 12-27-14]

Criticism is simply a choice, to begin with. I don't like this. Then it can often turn into a fault finding mission. Of course, when you're looking for faults, they appear. The more you look, the more you find. It's the Law of Attraction at work.

As we find these faults, we categorize and label them so that we can keep score and keep track. This is bad, this is really bad, this is disgusting, this is unfathomable, this is horrific, this is . . . and it goes on.

This can become such a habit that we don't even realize it is happening, or how we sound when we write it out or speak our criticisms out loud. Just listen to people talking, open Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, go to work, in your kitchen. It sort of becomes natural to do this, but it is anything but natural.

Some of this criticism or finding of fault, blaming, labeling, is relatively benign, and sometimes it becomes a career, a mission, a self-righteous purpose, a crusade. It is the length of time doing it and the depth of the feeling that makes the difference.

Yet, let me bring this back to the basics again. It is simply an observation and a choice. You see something you do not like and that is perfect. This world could not work without the contrast with which to make choices. However, rather than focusing on the things you don't like about that, you may choose the real reason the contrast is there: to help you make a decision to choose what you do like and focus your attention there.

We all know it's true that the more you focus on the fault, the more you will find. We often do not pay attention to the fact that the opposite is true as well: the more you focus on what you want, what is good, what is desirable, what is pleasing to you, the more you will find. The real question then is this simple: do you want to feel bad, or do you want to feel good.

We know that when we focus on the faults, we can become enraged, angry, upset, disappointed, discouraged, frustrated, and more, and none of those feel good. So why do we persist in doing it? Habit. We see others around us doing it, we see it in the newspaper, on the radio, on TV, on YouTube, and Facebook and, well, it is hard to avoid.

At the same time, when we turn and focus on what is pleasing to us, what we want, what we like, we feel good. We may feel love, appreciation, joy, enthusiasm, optimism, passion, and all of those feel very good. When we decide that it is important that we feel good, we can then allow all our emotions to guide us to better choices of focus, and enjoy our lives far more while the rest of the world may choose as it will.


We Have The Ultimate Power: It Is Purely Our Own Choosing That Directs Our Lives. 

Spread Some Joy Today--How are you feeling? Joy feels good.