Lessons I've learned from my parents, and My three "truths"

Growing up.  We all get to go through those ages and stages, and each and every one of us has a different life experience.  All of these experiences will shape the way we see the world, the thoughts that we may believe as to what is right and wrong, our mannerisms and the things we believe are true.  

I had always trusted all that I was taught, and still do, but I am also someone who has really started to be "ok" with questioning things in my world,  and being ok and comfortable in changing my mind on things, and, feeling confident that my beliefs are ok, if even different from my family, friends, or relationships.  I am enough, just like I am.

Enter, learning.  All that being said, I am a huge consumer of information.  As a adult, I ADORE having my mind challenged and encouraged to view ideas that I may have been brought up to believe, or grown to believe are one way, and not another, with a free and open mind.  I listen to a variety of podcasts with people who are highly trained and developed in their fields, and have really offered lots of food for thought to cross my mental path.  This all helps me learn more about myself, it helps me learn more about my spouse, my kids, my relationships with people in general.  

Hearing the point of view of others, clearly based on their own unique experiences, I find myself ok with questioning certain things that I had believed to be true. Sometimes though, I get that feeling of excitement over things that may validate my current thoughts, while of course realizing, that one day my opinion on those things may change.  It reinforces ideas and presents new ones at the same time!

All of this leads me to the title of this blog.  Whereas I have found my brain and thought processes doing these little micro shifts, I also have a deeply rooted set of thoughts and beliefs that were taught to me by my parents.  These, I will never let go of.  That part of the title is clear.

The part of the title that mentions "my three truths" comes from a podcast that I have grown to love for the variety of guests he has on it, and the eye opening wisdom that flows from said guests, and how much of that has been applicable to my life.  The podcast is called "The School of Greatness" by Lewis Howes.  For info on Lewis, click here

Lewis ends all of his podcasts by proposing the following question to his guests.  He asks them, if you had done all the "stuff" you had wanted to in your life, provided people with all kinds of great information, but you couldn't leave it behind, you had to take all that valuable information with you, what would be your "three truths". What are three things that you will say are rules to live by, things that are so ingrained in you and would be most beneficial for people to know to carry forward in their lives. Every episode I am completely left nodding my head in agreement at how BRILLIANT their answers are and love to make a mental note of them!  One day listening I thought, I wonder what MY three truths would be if I were posed that question?  For them, it's a question on the fly, but I had time to think about my answer! It actually didn't take me long at all to realize what mine were!

So here, I tie together Lewis Howes's question, and my mom and dad.  Here are my three truths.

1) LIFE ISN'T FAIR - If you are my brother reading this, you are probably nodding, or laughing, or just crossing your arms and saying "hmph"!  I cannot tell you how many times my mom and dad told us this when we would whine or moan about how unfair it was that he got to stay up later, or I got to have the last cookie and he didn't , or my best friend got a new car for her birthday and I got a hand me down used Chevy Impala....and was lucky to have been given that actually lol.  

This is a huge lesson to learn that I truly hope I have passed along to my girls.  Life ISN'T fair.  I have things others want, others have things or experiences I want, but there is no rule book saying what one has, the other should have.  Life doesn't work that way and learning that as early as possible is a huge lesson that has helped me understand better, and not feel anger, resentment or entitlement based on what other's lives entail.  I am ridiculously blessed, and I am reminded of that every single day! Hopefully others can see the blessings in their lives as well and a LOT of realizing your blessings, is mindset.  You can focus on negative things, or focus on the positive and appreciate the negative as it reminds us of the greatness around us!

2) YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF YOURSELF and your ACTIONS - This one was SO directly meant for me growing up. What I mean by this statement is...growing up, I would allow what other people thought about me, wanted from me, thought I "should" be doing or how they spoke about my behind my back HEAVILY influence my actions.  My mom would always tell me, It doesn't matter if so and so doesn't like your dress, if you like it, that's what matters.  If so and so gets mad because you don't want to skip class with them, that is on them, not you. If your friend talks trash about you to others, well that's none of your business and you just be you.   Basically, take accountability for you own actions, be confident in your own thoughts and understand the idea that YOU, and only you are responsible for your decisions, actions and path.  Don't blame YOUR bad choices on others. Don't blame where you are in life, on others.  We are blessed with freedom of choice, use it!

Phew, that was a BIG one for me but has definitely been very important to remember, even as a grown up!

It may feel like you are standing alone sometimes, but it's so important to know that you are enough in who you are, right now.

3) NEVER STOP LEARNING - This last truth is something I have learned by my parent's example and has also proven to be the most incredible piece of advice to follow.  My parent's, for those who don't know them, are both PhD's in business (accounting and Finance) and even though retired, are still taking classes every semester at University of Colorado because they thoroughly love the learning process and feeding their brains.  I have picked up this trait although the method to my learning is slightly different.  I definitely live in the era of YouTube, podcasts and vlogs to help me learn from a HUGE variety of people with opinions and experiences that differ!  DANG I love technology lol.

I will absolutely consume the heck out of my areas of interest and try to learn as much as I can, and then keep going for more. I can't get enough.  Photography, business, fitness, health and well being...the list goes on.  I will NEVER be too smart, or smart enough. There is always someone out there who knows more than I do, who is BETTER than I am at any given thing, and my motivation for continuing improvement is that I keep trying to be better and better at all things I love!  I crave it, I feed off of it and I relish in it!

The road through life is full of uphills as well as roads that take you down more difficult terrain.  All full of value if you humble yourself to see what those roads are telling you!

I hope you found value in this blog. I have been wanting to write about this for awhile now and thought today would be the day.  I have in no way figured out life and am happily on my road of discovery every day. I'm thankful that we have freedom of thought and I am humble enough to know I can learn from everyone and every experience.  

Until next week....

💓