Thursday; July 6

Throughout my life I have been exposed to a lot of wisdom.  Some of it came in deep discussions with wise people and some of it came from digesting pages of well written thoughts.  Yet, some of the most applicable truisms come from simple observations.  Some of them may have been said to me and I may have read a few on bumper stickers, but they all contain nuggets of sagacious wealth:
1.  You are never as good as your supporters tell you, nor are you as useless as your critics profess.  Some people have the ability to assess objectively, but many have an agenda – either good or bad.  Let’s be cautious in reading our reviews.
2.  When you believe you are important, try ordering around someone else’s dog.  Often our leadership is found in the relationships we build (both with our pets and our people), not in our own innate talent.  Let’s be committed to being humble, especially around those with whom we don’t have a relationship.
3.  God created us with two ears and one mouth – there should be a lesson in that.  I find that I get into more trouble with my mouth open than when it is closed.  Sure, every so often, I will hear something I wished I hadn’t, but those time are far outnumbered by the occasions when I have said things I wished I hadn’t.
4.  The urgent things scream louder, but the important things matter more.  We live in a busy world full of things vying for our attention.  We have to have the wisdom to differentiate between things that appear important and those that really are important. 
5.  People may miss us, but they will learn to function without us.  No one is irreplaceable and, in all honesty, it is amazing how quickly people find someone to replace us.  When it comes time for us to move on, we should feel comfortable to do so without worrying about the future.  The other side to this is that we should not feel bad when people replace us.  Maybe the best we can hope for is that others will remember us fondly. 
Think about it!

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