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...

back when i was a kid, my mother was filming my brother and i (about 3 & 4 years old at the time) as we decorated our christmas tree with ornaments. looking back, there's a shot of my brother on a step-ladder, reaching up as high as a four year old could, to place an ornament near the top of the mid-sized tree. he loses his balance for a moment, dropping the glass ornament as he catches himself from falling. CRASH! the ornament hits the floor and shatters.  this is all captured on video. however, as soon as the ornament breaks, my brother turns to the camera and screams, "lexi did it!!" the video pans to me in my footie holiday pajamas, minding my own business as i stood there watching -- not being very productive, but definitely not dropping ornaments on the floor. for my 4 year old brother, his diversion of blame was pretty clever, even cute. but to divert blame as a mature individual -- nope, not so cute anymore. a waste of energy is more like it.  you, an...