Monday, January 9, 2012

LIVING UP TO YOUR OWN STANDARDS

Hello there. How's it going? Did you have a most glorious weekend? I sho did ;0)  Once again, I fell in love. As a matter of fact, I fell in love a few times. Dang, I love that, falling in love. I love love. Okay, enough about love again, but you know I can't help it.

Got a scripture for you.

Matthew 7:3 says, "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam in thine own eye?"

This scripture means, to me, why are you judging or trying to fix someone else when you could be judged for what you do, or when you got a whole lotta fixen to do in yourself?

Mote means a chip or splinter, and a beam is something big they use to construct a house or building. Therefore, whatever you judge in someone else is much smaller than what you could be judged for.

That, my friend, is excellent guidance. Whenever I want to give someone advice (like in my blog, for instance), I know at least two things are going on for me. First, I am looking at what I think needs to be fixed in someone else, meaning I am being critical. Second, I need to give that advice to myself, which means living up to my own standards. Practice what I preach! Do you know what I mean?

When I want to fix someone else, I look at their imperfection rather than their assets. "Guess what?" I say to myself, "We are all imperfect, Elizabeth." 

A very stressful habit is focusing on peoples' imperfections. It is a habit of being critical when we could just as quickly be complimenting. If we are critical, it shows the mood of our mind. If the attitude of our mind is critical of others, you can bet it is critical of ourselves. When we are critical of ourselves, we tend to have very low self-confidence, producing doubt. Any kind of doubt, fear, or worry will create stress.

You know, and I know, we can be our worst enemies by being critical of or having doubt in ourselves. All the decisions we make in this life are based on doubt or certainty. If we make decisions based on mistrust, we miss out on some seriously spectacular goods. If we make decisions on assurance, we achieve, advance, gain, and obtain.

How did being critical become a habit? Well, I'll tell you. Most likely, when we were younger and as we grew up, we could have done a thousand things right all day long with no word said, and yet, when we did one thing wrong, we were criticized and corrected. So, other peoples' habits became ours.

The best thing I can do when I write a blog post or help an individual is to take my own advice and live up to my own standards. 

Do I take my own advice? I sho do! Eh-em, most of the time.

Do I live up to my own standards? I try, but like I say, "Nobody is perfect, Elizabeth."

One of the things I love to do the most is, I love, love, love to encourage people. Even though I am a Destress Yourself Specialist, I would love my title to be a Courage Specialist. And because I love to inspire others, I spend a lot of time encouraging myself. I am my own cheerleader. 

"You can do it, Elizabeth!"  I say to myself. 

Encouraging and complimenting others is much better than criticizing or trying to fix them. Taking the advice I want to give others and encouraging myself is much better than condemning. Honestly, just a simple choice, don't you think?

This week, and if I am brave enough for weeks to come, I will live up to my standards by taking my own advice. Whatever advice I am about to give, I will hush up and give it to myself, in my head, of course. I will focus on peoples' abundance and compliment and encourage them. I will look at my abundance and praise and uplift myself more.

That sounds like a great way to destress me, wouldn't you agree?

Hope you have a glorious week. You can do it! LOL! You are glorious! 

How am I doing so far?

Have fun! Be playful! And, speak soon!

Elizabeth Stanfill 

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