Relationships, what do you think?

"You will reap what you sow." By somebody who wrote it down and published it.

Good stuff here. This little phrase packs a real punch if you look at an aspect of your life that is in shambles. I will not pretend to know what that is for you but, if you're honest with yourself then you are the only one that needs to know anyway. Here is an example of what I mean. A man, lets call him Alfonso, is complaining all the time about how nobody invites him out to do anything . . . ever. To Alfonso, this is because everybody else is blind to just how much fun he really is, everybody just doesn't see his genius. What Alfonso doesn't see is this, he has not opened up the door for people to invite him to do anything. This is his day; he wakes up and immediately turns on the TV to some of the worst news anybody could possibly hear or watch, setting the tone for his day on the negative. He listens intently at how wrong everything is and shakes his head in a disapproving manner while brushing his teeth. Next, Alfonso gets into the car for his commute to hell, I mean his job, where he turns on some horribly "edgy" morning show where they are doing a "Battle of the Sexes" topic. Now that he's listened to that, he hates women. Finally he gets to work where he treats everybody like they are the terrorists he saw on the news this morning blowing up a crowded train depot somewhere in the middle east. Lunch time comes and he just wants to be alone for a half hour so, he goes to his car and eats his egg salad sandwich and grumbles about all the idiots he works with. He goes back to work after lunch and pretty much works to get through to the end of the day. Now, the commute back home is upon him. He gets to sit on the freeway for an hour with everybody else who has had a day just like his, an awful experience that he dreads even more about tomorrow. Finally, he is home. Home is his palace, Alfonso goes inside and is quick to lock the door and shut the blinds so that the evil that is out there can't get in. He grabs bite to eat, for one of course. Then our friend, Alfonso, paces the living room waiting for the phone to ring, waiting for one of his co-workers to ask him to go watch a much anticipated scrapbooking competition that is happening downtown. Alas, Alfonso is disappointed again. He knew that all his friends are just too busy with family, soccer games and church to pay any attention to him. He reasons with himself that there is nothing he can do about it so he walks over to the Walgreen's and picks up some Wild Turkey, comes home and gets plowed and falls asleep under the heavy weight of the world closing in on him. Then, he gets to do it again tomorrow.

Let's look at why he has not been invited to anything by anyone.
1. The first thing he hears in the morning is bad news. This puts him in a bad mood because everything is going off a cliff. He has yet to leave the house and it's all falling apart.
2. He treats everybody around him like crap. Nobody would invite an a-hole to anything.
3. He blames his problem on everybody else, he has yet to realize that he is the antisocial one.
4. He expects the SAME thing to happen tomorrow.

Now, let us run through Alfonso's day after he reads this blog posting. Alfonso wakes up in the morning and he's not hung over from drinking himself stupid the night before. Quite the contrary, he decides to skip the news and heads directly for some positive and uplifting music on his IPod to play while he gets ready for work. Alfonso, is feeling great and looking great, especially now that he is wearing a smile on his face. He gets in the car for his opportunity to go to a job that nearly 10% of Americans who are out of work would love to have. He stops by the Krispy Kreme and grabs box of doughnuts for the office. He makes his way by the cubicles of some of his co-workers and makes the greeting and lets them know that he has Krispy Kremes in the break room. He asks a little about their previous evening and gains an insight on what they are interested in. Maybe, Alfonso will have an interest in that same area and he can invite them to go participate in that activity next week. It's lunch time now and he goes into the lunch room and eats this time. He makes some small talk with those in the room, talking about the weather (people love talking about weather, why? Who knows?) and other current events. After lunch he goes and gets his work all finished up and sets up the workday for tomorrow. It's time for the commute home now. This time, instead of listening to some drivetime idiot DJ on the radio, he puts in "The DNA of Relationships" by Scot Anderson. He is tuning his mind to building relationships. On the way home, he gets a call from a co-worker, Heavy D. Heavy D asks him if he would like to come over and play some "Left 4 Dead" on the XBox 360. Alfonso agrees that it's a great idea and swings by the Little Ceasar's Pizza and grabs 12 boxes of pizza for $8.00. His evening is set and all is changed in Alfonso's world because he realized one very important thing.

He cannot blame others for what is his problem. He decides that it is his problem and then makes corrections to his behavior and actions. Alfonso has owned his situation, he has not blamed others and camped out on that mindset. He made changes in himself to grow. So can you.