Southwestern Advantage Blog

What value have you been placing on negative thoughts? What great thing has ever been accomplished by someone who believed it couldn't be done? How much mental energy do you waste on anger, resentment, or envy? What value will these thoughts ever add to your own life or the life of another? 

 We are creatures of emotion. Learning to control our emotions is a life-long practice. Negative thoughts will always come to mind. When we choose to allow those negative thoughts to remain in our minds, and to influence our words and actions, we selfishly turn our focus toward ourselves instead of toward the betterment of others.  What is gained by letting someone or something get you down?  Is the satisfaction of harboring dark emotions worth the happiness and meaning that it robs from your life?  We cannot control what life brings our way, but we  can control how we respond. We can always control our actions and attitude. Negatives will always be easy to find, bu...

i have come to learn that there are some people in your life who will relentlessly cheer you on, for better or for worse. and then, there are some who simply will not. no matter what. no matter how many times you beg or plead them to. being pleasantly persistent is a necessity in achieving anything worthwhile in life. however, if you encounter a negative, condescending, or just plain difficult person -- why spend time with that? life is too short to be spent with negative people . move on. i guarantee that there is someone out there who will enthusiastically, willingly, and cheerfully, appreciate you for who you are and whatever it is you're doing. go find them. if you're looking for someone to write a letter of recommendation for your grad school application, and your old boss is giving you the run around, telling you how busy he is and listing off the 35 reasons why he can't fit it into his schedule to come up with a few paragraphs (like you've never done him...