I believe people are going to speak evil in to my life and speak good into my life. People are going to say hurtful things towards me, but that does not mean I stop doing what God has called me to do. There have been situations that a student-athlete will quit a team, just because a coach told them something hurtful. I believe good coaches want the best out of you, and a way to get the best out of you, is to say something that will hurt your heart, enough to where you want change for the better. Being an athlete, I never wanted to be called soft. That hurt me more than anything and it angered me to be called that. Not because I thought it was not true, it was the opposite, I knew it was true, so I did whatever I could to never be called soft again. Point is, when a boss or coach tells you something that hurts you, take it as a challenge to get better. You may be called lazy, take it as a challenge to be more productive. You may be called selfish, do more unselfish acts. I know we all have those trigger words, but if we act out in anger and defense, we will simply prove that those particular words are true and we need to fix our attitude. It is hard to be corrected, but it is needed. So we cannot control way everybody says, whether it is wrong or right, true or false, but we can control how we respond to those words. No one can make you mad, only you can make yourself mad. Respond the right way to criticism and hateful speaking. A gentle answer turns away wrath (Proverbs 15:1)
The parts that we can control more than anything are what we think about, what we believe in, and our emotions. I can have bad thoughts run through my mind, but I do not have to act on them and I do not have to say them out loud. I can have good thoughts run through my mind, but I do have to act on them to make good things happen. There are people that cry, laugh, get angry, etc, at certain things. We all have emotions but we are not to be led by them. Our emotions should not make our decisions, our thoughts and beliefs should make our decisions. Because our emotions are never permanent, you cannot stay happy, stay sad, stay angry, etc. You see it with kids all the time, one minute they hate you and never want to speak to you again, the next minute you are a hero to them. In relationships, you will have disagreements and you will have lovely conversations. Social media shows that well, because usually when I see a guy or girl post something nice about there significant other, I think that the person that posted it did something bad and wants all of his/her followers that he/she is a good boyfriend/girlfriend. I am joking about this matter but you get my point, emotions change, so we have to control them. We do not have to say everything that is on our minds. When you have a strong belief system, your thinking will get stronger. Whatever you believe in helps your thinking. There are things that I do not compromise, if it goes against biblical principles, I will not do it. If I believe that doing something differently will benefit me, I will do it. Really control what you believe in so that your thinking is not contradicting yourself. You cannot serve two masters, you either serve God or serve Satan (Matthew 6:24)
We have the ability to decide how hard we are going to work at something. There are people that have less, that work harder than those who have more. Why? Because they do not have a victim mindset and they are not content with an average life. Do not let your disadvantages own you. God gives people disadvantages so that they can work harder. If everything was handed to me and I had nothing but advantages, I would get lazy and not want to accomplish anything. There are people that believe they have it all and are content with what they have, but then someone who has less, is working harder than them. As a player I felt I had height disadvantage and athletic disadvantage, so I worked hard. I knew I was small so I had to cut harder, make strong moves, and be smart in order to be successful. I knew that getting in the weight room and being in great shape will help my disadvantages because even though I am smaller, I am stronger. Even though you are better than me, I will outlast you. We cannot let a disease control our life, we cannot let a absent father control our life, we cannot let the wrong people control our life...We decide how we are going to handle our disadvantages. I want you to speak this over your life: I decide how successful I am going to be. I decide how hard I am going to work. No matter who is in my way or what is in my way, I will not lose sight of being successful. I want success, and no one can take that away from me. If I do not want to be the best at what I do, then I will not be successful. I may not be the best, but I will strive to be the best. With this attitude, I will go farther than I could ever go with any other attitude because when I am done, I will have no regrets. Because I decide to give my all
Thank you for reading, I hope this helps! Please share!
