Tip: Learn to win and not lose in life!
I want to be a very positive, uplifting, encouraging person, but sometimes I encounter people who do not want to be that way themselves. I am sure that you have met them, as well. Perhaps it was someone at the grocery store, or maybe at the gas station. It may even be someone in your own family. It might seem as though their goal in life is to pour cold water on everything you want to do. You have heard the expression, “Raining on someone’s parade.” There are some people who live to do just that. They are not happy unless they are not happy!
Everyone has the right to choose not to win in life. If you want to be a negative, sour, bitter, critical person, you have that right. It is your choice to live life any way you desire. Freedom of choice is the gift that has been given to all of us. If we choose to do things that are harmful or hurtful to ourselves, we have every right to do that. The only question and challenge that comes up is, “Who else will we hurt in the process?”
Let me use an example that will illustrate what I mean. I do not smoke cigarettes. It is not because I think I am better than anyone, nor do I think I am smarter than anyone else. However, I have read so much about the negative effects tobacco has on a person’s health, I have made the choice not to smoke. When I was in high school we were shown a film of a man’s cancerous lung being removed. As the physician removed it, he showed how the lung was filled with tar and commented that it was as a result of nicotine. He explained that it is a similar kind of tar that is used to pave roads and is extremely damaging. I determined right then that I did not want to do that! I did not want “road tar” inside of my chest! I want to be as healthy as possible.
Sometimes in busy morning traffic, there may be a car that does not look road-worthy broken down right in the middle of the highway. Thousands of cars are backed up behind it all because one person made a poor choice to drive a vehicle that was in need of much repair. I believe that person has every right to be on the road with their car. Perhaps they are trying to make it to work or trying to make it to the repair shop. That is their freedom and their right. However, when their car breaks down, they lose in life. Their choice is going to affect many other people in the process.
I think you get the idea of what I am trying to say in this Tip. When you see other people who are doing things that are really unwise, you must remember that they made a choice not to win in life, whether it is in regards to smoking, auto repair, relationships or anything else. And their choices will have a “trickle down effect” to other people. So will our own choices. It really makes no sense to live in such a manner as to only end up hurting ourselves as well as others.
Finally, I think we should cut people some slack. If they are not at a place right now where they want to win in life, perhaps they will be in a few weeks, months or years. Maybe the next disaster they encounter will be the one that opens their eyes and turns them from the losing way they are currently doing life to more winning ways. We should be gracious toward others, hope that they will make wise choices, and try to influence them to see that they also have the right to win and not lose in life.
Get a spoonful of sugar and swallow this Tip with it! It will cause you to have a better attitude in everything you do.
Tip: Learn to win and not lose in life!
Have a great week! God bless you!
Dr. Robert A. Rohm
