Lou Holtz - Goal Setting

Will Smith on the Power of Positive Thinking

Michael Jordan : Failure

Positive Mental Attitude

Make a positive deposit today and watch the video ;-)

Labels

We tend to want to label people and put them into certain groups based on one common characteristic. This is true when we refer to cultures (i.e. black culture or white culture). Here is a take on that by a good friend of mine who chose to remain anonymous.

Labels

What is it about humans that make us apply labels to or categorize certain things in life? I believe we feel this need to section off certain things so that we can study them in a light that we feel is appropriate. These sections and the labels for these sections are applied according to the givers beliefs and past experiences. People tend to fall into categories in each of our lives. We use words such as dependable, strong, lazy, and good friend, just to name a few that come to mind. A lot of these labels are unjust and based on a chance encounter; others are earned by years of knowledge and insight into a friend's life. I believe people as a whole also inadvertently apply these labels to races as well.

I normally take great pride that almost everyone who knows me would never say I'm a racist. At times people have confused my dislike of a certain person or persons as me being racist because the person in question happened to be of a certain color or another. People who are around me enough come to realize that I apply the same likeability qualifications to all colors, and that I am normally 100 percent honest about how I feel when asked. I sometimes give this honesty even before being asked which earns me my own label of "A hole" from time to time. It is a term of endearment that I have learned to live with and even ignore. This label does not bother me, as close friends of mine will attest, because I truly do not care what most people think of my actions. I sleep very well at night.

In the last few months I have explained to several people in a volunteer group that I belong to, that I feel that modern black culture leads black children in a vicious cycle of repeated motion. Kids having kids and parents not being there for their children offering sound advice on how to improve themselves, I felt was part of black culture. After speaking and discussing these observances with a successful black friend of mine, (I don't label a person as African American unless they came over from Africa earned American citizenship and still have an accent.) I realized that maybe I was applying a label that wasn't correct to black culture. Cultures rub off on one another and anytime cultures meet or cross paths ideas are exchanged.

White culture just as much as black culture is basically location driven and changes according to population and class status. The white kid with the hick accent, a mullet and large belt buckle is just as likely not to get a job in corporate white collar America as the black kid that sags, wears too much bling, and speaks in ebonics. (No I didn't capitalize it, it's not really a language.) I will say that white, black, brown or any color, people from this tier of society make up most of America's, what I label, the ditch digger and dishwasher class. Make no mistake America needs these people as well but I hate to see any color of child stuck in this class when they had the ability to climb to the next level. I have changed my theory on culture and realized it was wrong. I do not apologize for misplacing a label, culture made me do it, but I will fix it in any conversation I have after this point. In the future I will place blame for lack of performance in a young person squarely where it belongs, on the parents, on the teachers, and from time to time on the person in question themselves.

A lot of people in America peak just out of high school. Their net worth to society never improves and some even become burdens. It is our job as a society to make as many kids/young people see that success depends on hard work and improving ones self daily. Success is a label also, but normally it accompanies a label of happiness.

You Have the Power to Change the World

SA 101 Episode 1: The Importance Of Becoming Self-Aware

Feed your mind