Stop…Think…Do.
Life is so busy today – so many people seem as if they are in such a rush, trying to do so much in so little time.
Stop for a moment and consider the picture as if you were a giant looking at all the humans running around in such a busy frenzy. I think it would probably give you the impression of mice on a treadmill in a pet shop, or something similar. Yet that is how many of us are for much of the time. Running from one thing to another without stopping, without thinking, without changing course.
If we stop for a while, we have time to think, time to grow as people.
Let us take the example how many of us relate to our pets. To start with, the pet is the centre of attention, a novelty, and interesting. As time wears on, in many cases ( though thankfully, not all), the pet can become a feature of our home -a bit like a mobile ornament or piece of furniture. Sometimes pets are treated as trophies, something by which the owner’s ego is boosted. Others use pets to express the nasty side of their personality – those macho seeming types who like to swagger around their neighborhood with a nasty and dangerous dog come to mind.
When we take time to stop and think about ownership of a pet from different angles, we find it easier to see that the pet has feelings, emotions and a personality all of its own. Very often the pet wants to love us but we can easily push it away because we are “too busy”. One day of course the pet has gone – many only have a short natural lifespan. The opportunity to love the animal has gone. Perhaps we will feel sad then, and regret that we did not spend more time with the animal, and that we did not love it to the best of our ability. It is all too late of course.
If only we had taken time to consider that one day the pet will pass on, we might have decided to spend more time loving it. In doing so, besides benefiting the pet, we would have actually benefited ourselves and other people with whom we come into contact – simply from the perspective that we would have grown the loving side of our being. If only we weren’t too busy. Too self-centred. Too shallow. Too unkind.
And the same applies to the people in our lives. I recall when I was a boy that my father used to call me a “pest”. He used to say it with real venom in his voice. He even used to spell it out to me – P E S T. Each syllable containing hateful venom. I remember it well today – it’s like looking at a movie from the past. At the time, and in subsequent years, it did damage me a great deal, though I am over it now. Many children never recover from this type of treatment and go on to inflict similar upon other people when they become adults.
How do you treat your children? What sort of person are you really? Do you take time out to stop, to think about how you might become a better person, and then take appropriate action? Or are you one of those people that thinks that you have nothing to change? As you feed love, and loving actions, it grows in your life. And interestingly, you find that you attract more love too (not that you do it for that reason).
So take some time today to focus on personal development. Your family, friends, pets, staff and anyone else you come into contact with will thank you for it. And one day, you will probably thank yourself too.
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