Thursday Thought

"The shortest and surest way to live with honour in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be; and if we observe, we shall find, that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice of them."

~Socrates

Fake people. There isn't much worse in this world than those who say they are one thing, but are really something else. Or those who try to be something they are not. Here's a little secret for all guilty of this crime: WE CAN SEE RIGHT THROUGH YOU. And we don't like it. If you don't like someone's shirt...don't compliment them on it. If you absolutely hate hiking, don't say you do to impress some guy. If you are not in calculus 2, don't say you are. The truth will come out eventually and it's not fun.

Why can't people just be happy with who they are? There is no reason to hide. Just put a smile on your face and BE YOURSELF. That doesn't mean that you can't improve on yourself or try to become the person you want to be. But there is no sense in PRETENDING to be that person. If you focus on being yourself and working towards being that person, you will get there much faster.

Which brings me to the second part of this quote...if you work on the qualities we want to improve upon or implement in your life, eventually they will come. But things take time. Just like you can't become an Olympic gymnast a month after you start taking class, you can't decide tonight that you want to be more thoughtful and tomorrow expect to be completely self-less. It just doesn't happen that way. But if you set the goal tonight to become more thoughtful, try for the next week to do one nice thing for someone else. Then the week after that try to sincerely compliment five people a day. After that, try doing an anonymous act of kindness or donating to a charity. Eventually, you will become a more thoughtful person by nature and won't have to set so many goals.

In short, be content with you who are and strive to develop the qualities you want for yourself. There is no reason to hide behind fabricated traits, facts, or images of yourself. SMILE for the person you are now...I guarantee someone loves you for just that. :]