We Think We’re Brilliant
“If I walk back to your room in 10 minutes and it’s not clean,
I’m going to throw everything that’s left out away.”
Carlos Whittaker*
My style of parenting is as they say, reactionary. Ok it’s really what I call Over Reactionary. I tend to take small moments of frustrations and defiance and blow it way out of proportion.
I call it endearing. My wife calls it annoying.
But I saw the above quote1 and thought not just of my overreactionary parenting but also thought that we think what we have to say is so brilliant until we realize the truth.
Carlos Whittaker goes on to say next to this inspirational quote picture, “Every time I'm tempted to make an image with a brilliant quote from myself for social media... I ask my kids to quote me instead..”
I love this principle because we all need to be somewhat humbled.
We may think what we have to say is brilliant and yes, it may be. But it is likely not. We need to remember that what we say isn’t necessarily brilliant. How it affects others could be and that’s the important thing.
We need to ask better questions when thinking about our “brilliant” ideas.
How does your idea affect others?
How can it help them?
Could it harm them?
What does it do for their soul?
Or their physical needs?
These are the types of questions we should be asking rather than how it makes us look.
No matter how brilliant we think we are, it only matters how bright someone else becomes after engaging with our stories, art, and ideas.
TODAY, let’s make this mind shift and think better about ourselves and how we contribute.
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Footnote:
*The above quote is from one of my favorite people on the planet, Carlos Whittaker, on his Facebook group page (5.20.16). I was fortunate to spend a a couple hours sharing a meal with him a couple months back and I had an awesome time learning from him. Make sure to give him a follow on Instagram. His stories & reels are phenomenal and I always feel better after watching and engaging with him.
