Hauling Rocks

Abraham Lincoln once said that if you “look for what is wrong, you will surely find it.” How true this is. The imperfections in ourselves mean we can always find deficits if we try. For a lot of us, it is much easier to find cracks and faults.

If your focus is on what is wrong, if you are busy looking for the flaws and weaknesses in your character, you are weighing yourself down just as surely as if you were going through life carrying a big backpack full of rocks – and every day the backpack just gets heavier.

Of course, if you are a world-class negative thinker, then the weight of your burden becomes just one more thing with which to find fault. On the other hand, if you spend most of your time looking for and appreciating all that is right or delightful about yourself and the world around you – and make no mistake, there are thousands of delights in this world once you start looking for them – it is as if you had diamonds in your pockets.

To get a quick reading on where your focus is, list all your shortcomings and all your strengths on a piece of paper. Take your time and make sure you cover as much as possible. Once you have finished both lists, look to see if you used a double standard. Did you list as weaknesses those things that are occasionally true about you or always true? On the other hand, did you list strengths that are almost always true or just occasionally true? Depending upon what you find, you may be stacking the cards against yourself.

If you get rid of your old programming that says it is better to haul rocks than diamonds, and start affirming your strengths instead, your life will be so much richer! And you couldn’t find a better day to start than today.