Have you ever felt like you just wanted to punch someone’s lights out?
Believe it or not, I had that feeling (for a small moment) yesterday.
I was standing in the driveway of my Karate instructors house with my 2 middle boys, Camden and Kyson.
(Here’s a pic of Camden)
Kayden, my oldest, was in class so the 2 younger kids and I were outside enjoying the spring weather and fresh air.
All of a sudden, one of the other dad’s comes over and starts talking to me about random stuff like his glory days of street fighting.
As is my habit, I listen and show interest in what he’s saying (even though I feel like some of it is complete nonsense).
This is one of my BIG secrets of getting people to like me.
This evil scheme of social strategy is revealed in the book “How To Win Friends And Influence People“, and it works like magic every time.
All of a sudden, the guy says “How old are your boys?”
I tell him, well Camden there is 6 and his other brother is 4.
Camden is standing next to me, listening to the conversation.
The guy says “6!? He’s so small! I thought he was 3!”
And it was then, that I wanted to punch his lights out for being such an ignorant jerk, and saying something that had the potential to do serious psychological damage to the mind of a 6 year old boy.
But I refrained.
One of my old friends, Todd from Baltimore, taught me something that’s helped me a LOT over the years.
He said, Paul… “The higher can understand the lower, but the lower cannot understand the higher”.
This doesn’t mean that one is better than another, but that certain people DO have more or less knowledge, enlightenment, tact and understanding than others.
It’s the job of the “Higher” to stop, refrain from knee jerk reactions… and instead, bring understanding to the situation.
So, I remained quiet, finished the conversation and I saved my ‘revenge’ for later. 😉
The Revenge
Later on that evening my family is gathered around the kitchen table eating fish, rice & veggies. (yeah baby, healthy style… *Thanks honey)
I say, “Boys, should we listen to everything everyone says, or be selective in who we listen to?”
Camden says, “Be selective dad!”.
That’s right son.
Why is that?
We then had an AWESOME discussion, around the dinner table, about how some people just don’t know…
…and how we should be extremeley careful in what information we take in (and from whom).
We talked about that guy who’d made the rude comment earlier and about why his comments didn’t matter at all to us.
Cool thing is, my son Camden wasn’t even phased by the comment.
That little 6 year old has more wisdom in his ‘little’ body than the full grown adult man standing next to us earlier that day.
And that makes me smile.
The lesson here was stated perfectly by Dr. Napoleon Hill.
“Seek council, not opinion.”
Amen Dr. Hil.
Amen.
I’m so grateful that my journey has taught me, not just how to be free with my time and money…
It’s taught me priceless lessons that I can pass on to my children.
So that hopefully, as they grow, they’ll be a little wiser… a little stronger… and a little more prepared to face the world ahead.
This business, is WAY more than just a business.
It’s LIFE!
And I LOVE it!
🙂 Did you like this story? Have you ever felt like slugging someone before? lol. I’d love to hear down below.
Yep! What others think of us is none of our business. I am learning that on the J O B with co-workers -ugh. I will remember the wise quotes you have shared. So fun to watch you and your family grow 😀
I remember this post! Funny! Gotta love jerks like that. haha… You handled it well!
ha ha.. Yes – I’m following your example Mike Hobbs… (with the secret blog strategy that shall remain nameless) ha ha..
Thanks brother. Maybe if I had your skills and strength I wouldda just knocked him right out.. lol.. (Just kidding of course)
Not on the skills and strength.. You’re definitely a ninja.
I learned to never punch a person in the face while their head is up there _ _ _ .
Mainly, just because of not wanting to be covered by their “mess” . : )
Meh.
Good things come in small packages a lot of times Hutch!
As a fairly large individual myself, society puts way too much emphasis on size.
I’m pretty sure if you and I got into a fisticuffs duel (Heaven forbid) you would probably hand me my ass big Paul!
Love you dude and congratulations on resisting the urge to punch that DB.
Don’t let society’s fixation on beauty, size and material wealth skew your perception of what is really valuable.
If your kids grow up to be half the man you are, they will be twice the man I am and 10 times the man that Cap’m Big Mouth is!
Thanks for sharing!
For sure Mars. They sure do.
ha ha.. I don’t even want to IMAGINE ever getting into it with one of my favorite Big teddy bears on planet earth! (said with the utmost respect) 😉
Love you right back.
And man – such wisdom there. The outer shell is not always representative of what’s on the inside and so I agree – We should never judge from exteriors.
Thanks for the compliment man and Grateful you don’t see all my weaknesses.
Appreciate you man and all you do for us.
Truly.
Paul
Way to go, Dad!
Thanks Mary Beth!
You rock Paul and Camden. 🙂 I prob would have punched him first. Tend to shoot from the lip – 70 yrs construction and mining…yet, I’ve mellowed. HA!
Yes, a good lesson to teach our kids as our first reaction is to get revenge. This teaches us control in many ways. Yet, watch how people control you!
Great point Alecia.. knee jerk reacting to what other people say or do – sort of gives them control over us right? Thanks for making that point.
You are such an awesome dad! I would have wanted to defend my kid. But you did the best thing by being quiet and using the situation as a teaching moment.
Thanks Linda! Ya – I don’t think that anything I might have said or did would have opened that guys mind anyway, so sort of pointless to go that route. Even though the temptation was there.. probably wouldn’t have done much good.
Once again… Your evil plan sucks me in from your FB to your blog. Intentional? I think yes. Awesome parenting… Awesome lessons.
I think i still need quite a bit of growth, coz i might have actually punched him in the face
ha ha.. no worries mate.. that’s why we’re where we’re at and doing what we’re doing right? Love ya man!
What a *great* story, Super Dad!! 🙂
Thanks Kevin – Super dad right back at ya!
Awesome blog post Paul. There’s someone I’m going to need to tag in this on FB because he needs to read this. Thanks again for your amazing wisdom 😀
I love your post because they are so common and relatable, keep doing awesome things Paul!!!
aaaaah thanks so much for that Kimberly.. appreciate that.. PS – I see your videos improving BIG time. They were good before but man.. you’re really cranking it up. Keep going!
Awww thanks so much I follow great people like you! You keep being awesome 😉
🙂
There are so many lessons we can learn every day, if we are open to it. One way for me is to surround myself with mentors like you Paul, that share reminders of lessons we can learn from each other’s experiences rather than just our own. So I appreciate you for sharing this experience and your boys sure have a great dad!
That’s right Lynn… It is more powerful to be UNIFIED. Ultimate leverage… when we learn from each others experiences we compound our growth. I appreciate you too!
This is the kinda of content I really like… Great job writing Paul I am so excited to grow into the future as one big family online.
Hey Scott.. Thanks for the feedback man! Sincerely appreciate it. Me too! One big family… here WE COME!
Sweeet blog post!
Thanks Mario! Appreciate it. Thanks for stopping by.