The Catalyst

Greetings Everyone,

We all have a daily routine. Sure, there are variances but for the most part everything we do is repetition. Repetition is good. It helps us form habits which we use to become productive members of society. We wake up, turn off the alarm, and begin our day. We brush our teeth. We shower (hopefully). We get dressed and the off to work we go. Although our daily schedule can become monotonous, repetition gives us stability in an otherwise unstable world. But I would be doing a great injustice if I didn’t give you the dark side of repetition.
Telling your spouse you love them everyday is wonderful. Repeatedly hugging your kids is also virtuous. Praying, meditating, and being thankful are all actions in which repetition is ideal. However, I want to talk about the things you do repeatedly that have a negative impact on your life. Let’s start with the alarm going off in the morning. You turn it off. Then, you go to the bathroom. You then wash your hands and get the “sleep” out of your eyes. Now, these actions are pretty standard and not so detrimental. Then it happens. You look in the mirror and notice how much weight you’ve gained. Or, as in my case, you notice how much hair you’ve lost. Or you noticed how much older you look now. Once you’ve finished pointing out how much you’ve changed, you go to the closet. After reminiscing how your clothes used to fit, you commence to beat yourself up some more because you clothes are outdated. Sound familiar? From that point, you go to your car that you constantly complain about and drive to work. After enduring an hour of road rage and traffic, you arrive at your job that you desperately want to quit. Once the excruciating 8 hours are up, you proceed to fight rush hour traffic to get home only to find a family eagerly awaiting dinner or a wife impatiently waiting on the excuse you have as to why the washing machine is still not working. Do you see what I’m getting at? Does this describe your usual day? If so, no wonder you can’t wait for the next Catalyst to come out (just kidding…but a little serious).
Now, I know that your days don’t follow the schedule that I laid out in the previous paragraph. I described a day in this way to prove a point. If you practice something consistently you will eventually get good at it. That’s fine if you are taking piano lessons. It’s not so good if you belittle yourself over and over because your living situation isn’t perfect. If you regularly focus on your shortcomings, how can you expect to have any decent level of self esteem? So what if you car doesn’t have air conditioning? At least you have a car. So what if you’re “looking” old. Some people won’t live as long as you. So what if your job sucks? Everybody’s job sucks. The longer you live, the more you’ll find out that your situation isn’t as unique as you think it is. The key to life isn’t worrying about what you don’t have. Look, I’m as *impecunious as the next person but I stay grateful for what little I do have. Would I like to have more? Absolutely, but I don’t make the mistake of equating happiness with having “more”. More money, a bigger house, and/or a better job won’t make you any happier than you are right now. It won’t give you joy because if you equate “more” with happiness you’ll never be satisfied because you’ll come to the conclusion that happiness = more and you will never have enough. Insatiability is the soil in which the seeds of greed grow. Always be thankful for what you have because “more” is never guaranteed.

“Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth” – Franklin D. Roosevelt


Dream Big. Live Bigger.



The All-American
http://www.rallostyles.com/
http://www.blestbabyproductions.com/


*Word you’ve never heard…

impecunious /im-pih-KYOO-nee-uss/ adj. - having very little or no money usually habitually