A person is not defeated by their opponents but by themselves

Jan Christiaan Smuts

Larry Winget (Pitbull of Personal Development) has an interesting take on almost anything.  Many that hear him the first time are likely to be offended.  After listening/reading him, many ideas make sense.  They are only so direct that it may take a while to allow the message to penetrate.  Especially since politically correct has become mainstream and we ‘don’t want to offend anyone’.

He is probably the Barnum of Personal development.  His recent post on the theory of relativity for lazy people may take you more than one reading to get the message.  Worth the time though.

From Troy: “It is my observation that there is a growing epidemic of excuses that I call the “Lazy Man’s Theory of Relativity.” Americans seem to continually measure their position or situation in relative terms that makes their lazy lifestyles appear more successful. Let me give a few examples: I am relatively thin compared to that fat guy; I’m relatively rich compared to that broke ass over there; I work relatively hard compared to the narcoleptic janitor; I’m a relatively great parent compared to that woman wearing the muumuu feeding her kid Twinkies for lunch; or the worst one—we are relatively free compared to people in other countries.

What has happened that has enabled us to give up on our ideals and settle for relative success or perfection? Why are we always on the search for that loser whose life sucks more than ours so we can remind ourselves how good we are doing. I can’t stand it when someone makes relative comparisons to make the current situation appear less painful or pathetic.”

Read the post here: http://larrywinget.net/blog/?p=235

Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement - and we will make the goal.

Jerome P. Fleishman