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First Born

A while back I came across an article at CBS.com entitled Personality Traits Linked to Birth Order. According to the article (they actually said this) most only children are first born ~ do you think so!

Being the first child in our family I always thought I would make a great only child; the only possible thing that could get in the way, siblings.

I can still remember Mrs. Robson from next door asking “how do you like having a baby brother Brent” I looked her straight in the eye and said “what I really wanted is a dog”. Next thing you know there is a baby sister in the family and still no dog.

Karen was a sweet little girl; she had everyone wrapped around her finger. In her teens she entered the Miss London contest and then went on to Miss Canada, later that year in Lima, Peru she was crowned Miss Universe. She went from home town girl to international jet setter in just a matter of months.

I went into real estate.

Karen moved to New York, she had a Manhattan apartment with a view of the park, her room-mate was Miss U.S.A. ~ you know, when I was 18 Miss U.S.A. would have been my first choice for a room-mate too.

What a life, first class travel around the world, hanging out with celebrity types, gifts, glamour, the whole shebang.

I was doing Sunday open houses in the middle of a recession and not well either.

Now on the other hand, my brother (back to that CBS article) turns out he is a classic middle child. The article said that the middle child was generally the polar opposite of the older sibling.

So Mark became the President and founding partner in a wildly successful international internet company that sold for multiple millions of dollars.

Being the polar opposite I explored the other end of the financial spectrum.

There was a time that I didn’t think I measured up, and then I realized I was thinking middle class, so now I consider myself a recovering middle class thinker. It isn’t the events that we have lived but how we choose to have them define who we are.

Think World Class

 

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I am Intolerant of Cynicism

I really believe true cynics, those that believe people are generally selfish and dishonest, are few and far between. From time to time just about everyone I have ever met has had a few moments where they have demonstrated a cynical side but generally speaking I believe most of us are centered in being more humanist than cynic.

Although, I must say that my general observation has been that the more divided we are by boundaries of race, religion, community, politics and geography the more prevalent cynicism becomes. As it becomes more prevalent it is more widely tolerated and this tolerance breed’s cynicism as the spiral begins to be a self-fulfilled prophecy.

Much of this is rooted in conflict and in our culture the press thrives on conflict and cynicism. Stories abound nightly in living colour and in the intimate spaces of our homes as the news reports another abuse or disregard for life, laws, or values. Human indignities and horrific violations would appear to be the norm and not the exception if you were to take the news as your only source of human interaction. After a steady diet of conflict and catastrophe who wouldn’t develop a cynical view of the world.

So is my attitude wrong, am I being cynical if I declare myself intolerant of those who are cynical or am I just being unduly judgmental. Both of which are attitudes that I abhor in others but seem to fit fine into my life as long as I am the one making the rules.

These emotional conflicts are within us at many different levels. Fundamentally you need to know what matters to you and be comfortable with your terms of reference; not somebody else’s.

Think World Class

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Envy

Envy is the perfect example of an emotion that logically, we know serves no constructive purpose in our lives. It is comparing ourselves, our work, or our accomplishments and possessions to those of another person or group of people. Envy is self-defeating and demoralizing; it is an emotion that creates a status barrier and is selective in its argument. When we enter into an envious state we choose to look at only those things that we value the most and have an avid disregard for any possible negatives or the lifetime commitment employed by the person or people we are comparing ourselves to. Envy is the face of fear and self-loathing; it is the gateway to attack and slander. It has ruined public figures, heroes, political giants, and millions of ordinary people, envy is indiscriminate, it is a corner stone of middle class thinking.

At some time in our lives we have all been debilitated or limited by our own ego driven envy.

So what do we do when feelings of envy consume us? First and foremost let them go, dismiss them, reframe them, take a personal inventory with appreciative eyes. Choose to praise those that you envy and see them with sincere admiration, find beauty and not animosity.

If all of that fails you then wet your finger and stick it into a light socket. Seriously, just get over it; let it go quickly and as efficiently as possible. Otherwise you will never move beyond your limitations.

Live in light not the darkness ~ Think World Class.com