WE BUY JUNK CARS.

I walked out to my Jeep this weekend, and there was a business card on my driver’s side window.

I grabbed the card, it read: “We Buy Junk Cars,” and then I threw it away.

• I love my car.
• I have no insecurity attached to my car.
• I don’t judge myself about my car.

The act of that man putting a business card on my car didn’t negatively affect me because there was no preexisting insecurity attached to the situation.

Now if this same situation happened with my old car, I would felt differently.

If that “we buy junk cars” was on my old 2002 Explorer, it may have upset me and embarrassed me.

That made me realize the business card wasn’t good or bad, the man that placed the card on my Jeep wasn’t good or bad or to blame… the power lies in my interpretation of the business card in connection with my own feelings about my car.

Our judgements, prejudices, feelings, insecurities, entitlements … all of those things are the filters we see the world through.

Life is all about how we are interpreting the things that are happening around us. Most of the circumstances in our life are not good or bad until we add our interpretation, our judgement, and we view them through our filter.

How do we apply this understanding to our life?

Socrates said, “If the criticism is just, I must try to reform myself. If it’s untrue, it doesn’t matter.”

If someone says you are a jerk, and you know that your character is strong and you aren’t a jerk, then you don’t worry about that comment because you know it’s incorrect.

We get upset by the comments of others when it attaches to our own preexisting insecurities.

The next time you say “this person did this to me” or “that person made me feel this way,” stop and take notice of how you are interpreting the situation. Know that you have the power to change how this circumstance “occurs” to you.

If we go through life jumping from one emotion to the next and blame our emotions on other people, we are out of control.

Remember that the “We Buy Junk Cars” business card was not an insult unless I chose to interpret it that way.

Choose to interpret situations in a way that benefit and serve you and your happiness.

Control your emotions, control your filters and you can control yourself.

Have a great day everyone.

12.11.17