“What is wrong with people!”
That’s what I said when my son Kayden told me about one of the comments someone left on one of his music video posts.
Kayden’s been super dedicated in practicing his guitar. He’s even written a couple songs & taken the huge step of posting some of his music online.
Seeing him grow in this area and then develop the courage to put himself out there has made me super proud as a dad. I’ve loved seeing this new discipline develop in him and am excited about where it can take him in the future.
‘Everything affects everything else. Every letdown affects the rest. Every new discipline affects the rest…‘ -Jim Rohn
He’s gotten a great reception to his music with hundreds of likes on what he’s shared.
One comment last week though, stuck out like a sore thumb.
Kayden practiced and practiced a song and recorded it while sitting on the front porch of my home office, an old hickory shed.
The camara angle happened to catch the bottom of the porch overhang, which has some unfinished OSB. It’s on the underside of the roof so it’s not exposed to the elements, and isn’t visible unless you’re under it and looking up which is probably why the builders left it that way.
In any case, Kayden had stepped out in faith to post his music.
Imagine, practicing and practicing, to the point where you feel you can take the risk of singing and playing publicy, exposing yourself to a world of online judges.
Will they like it?
Will they think I’m dumb?
Will they even listen or just ignore me and pretend I don’t exist?
I imagine these are the questions that might be floating in my mind just before doing something like this.
You gather up your courage, upload the video & click ‘publish‘, wondering what’s to come.
Some stranger sees the video, ignores every single point of beauty, and instead, focuses like a laser beam to the one piece he can find to criticize.
“Man, i see you have some OSB exposed on that building. You probably wanna get that covered up. Probably not good to leave exposed to the elements.”
That’s what you choose to see and comment on?
& that’s why, when Kayden showed me the comment, I said
“What’s wrong with people!?”
Thankfully, it’s a harmless comment, but it does seem to illustrate 2 points about human nature that people tend to have a hard time resisting.
- The habit of looking for what’s wrong instead of focusing on what’s right.
- The habit pointing out on what’s wrong so others can worship your ego as the supreme judge of ‘rightness’ (at least in your own imagination)
Of course we’re all free to engage in these 2 common pastimes, but we’re not free to avoid the consequeces.
Happiness, and success in business, seem to require something more from us.
A vision & way of interacting with people that lifts & attracts, instead of one that punches down & repels.
In my experience, the mind can be tuned to the former.
If your mind is up for a little upward fine tuning, you may really enjoy the replay of today’s mastermind call.
Thanks for reading & whatever you do,
Always go for your dreams,
Paul
Great stuff, as always, Paul!
Thanks so much!
God Bless!!!