Artificial Garbage

Yesterday during another great conversation with a good friend, we started talking about some of the unneccessary distractions in life that people put a good deal of time and effort into. We put our heads together and came up with the term "artificial garbage" to describe this phenomenon. I was so intrigued by this idea that I thought it would be a good topic for my next blog post. Thank you my friend for the inspiration - you know who you are!

Besides the plastic packaging and other items that are quickly clogging our landfills, to me artifical garbage is all of the background nonsense that we get so absorbed in sometimes in our daily lives. Things like instant message chats, the constant barrages of social media updates, reality television "celebrities" and sensationalized news stories are just some of the contributors to this problem. We as humans also sometimes get so caught up in what others are doing and what they think we should be doing in our lives that we lose sight of what's important to ourselves and who we want to be as people.

After looking at the important things and ideas and my life, and the good advice of a few choice family members and friends, here's some tips I came up with to help reduce this "artificial garbage" in our daily lives:

1. Don't let anyone, including yourself, limit your successes.
2. Be true to yourself. Only you know the type of person you want to be.
3. Don't get caught up in other people's drama. Understand and emphathize when it's necessary, but give yourself time and space to be you.
4. Don't worry what other people think about you. What you think about yourself is what really matters. People do pick up on and admire the confidence you have in yourself.
5. Don't be afraid to dream big and set big goals. You may achieve them all and you may not, but at least you had the courage and conviction to try new things, and learned from them in the process.
6. Family isn't always blood relatives. Often times, the friends who you feel the most comfortable talking to and sharing your experiences with while enjoying each other's company are much closer to you.
7. Do something nice for someone each week. Whether it's a small thing like giving a dollar to a homeless person or calling a friend to wish them well, or something big like organizing a clothing drive or donating to a local charity, your efforts are always well worth it in the end, because you made a difference in someone's life.
8. Just because someone you care about isn't always there when you need them, doesn't mean they don't care about you. It just means they are just as busy at making the world a better place as you are.
9. I'm paraphrasing this one from a quote on Facebook: it doesn't matter how much money, how many cars, expensive gadgets or big fancy houses we have in life. Our graves are all the same size. Stay humble.

That's all I have for now. Until next time, have a great Super Bowl Sunday - GO BRONCOS!!!