The Pursuit of Happiness – Part 3 – Inspire or shun negative people

 Part 3 – Inspire or shun negative people.

You get a breed of people who can never be happy. They are never satisfied with their lives, with what they have and with people around them. They can never embrace life or accept responsibility for their actions. They have no idea what their mission in life is and can never accept their destiny. Despair, prejudice and bitterness darken their inner being. They have no faith, no hope and no love.

These people cannot add anything good to your life, but they can poison your mind and soul.

Shun them. Never get into their sphere of influence – or shall we call it "un-influence"!

There is an adage which says that if you do not know why people are that way, you should walk a mile in their shoes first. This is a very good idea.

My advice is that you do that, so that, after you have done that, you are a mile away from them and you have an extra pair of shoes. Just make sure that a mile away is far enough and that the shoes are quite new.

The words of an old sage comes to me and it goes like this:

He who knows and knows that he knows is a wise man. Follow him.

He who knows and knows not that he knows is asleep. Wake him.

He who knows not and knows that he knows not is a child. Teach him.

He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool. Avoid him.

You and I are there to wake people or to teach them – or to avoid them! No matter what the scope of our knowledge and experience is, there is always someone in our sphere of influence we can help, enlighten and inspire.

Similarly, we are people who can teach ourselves and learn from others, whilst we minister to and mentor those who have been less fortunate than we have been.

We are passionate about life, about creation, about our careers and about inspiring people. Let us go out and inspire. In the process we will be inspired even more than we inspire them. It will give us a sense of purpose, accomplishment and add meaning to our lives.

We guard our thoughts and words, always testing whether what we say is true, kind and considerate. If it is not, we keep quiet – at least sometimes!

But ... wait ... are we not perhaps the negative ones?

Let us do a simple test. We take a voice recorder when we go into long conversations. Afterwards, we listen to our own words and count the negative and kind things we have said during the conversation. If we said more than one negative thing and fewer than two kind things, then we are negative and in need of a good mentor.

Search for a good mentor and do not stop until you find him or her. Much like the crew in 'Hunting of the Snark', searched for it.

They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;

They pursued it with forks and hope;

They threatened its life with a railway-share;

They charmed it with smiles and soap.

 And the Banker, inspired with a courage so new

It was matter for general remark,

Rushed madly ahead and was lost to their view

In his zeal to discover the Snark!

Read the whole poem; it is very long, but might just be the best poem you have ever read. It is an agony in eight fits by Lewis Carroll, and can be read here:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43909/the-hunting-of-the-snark

Back from our digression to the seriousness of life.

In short: Inspire negative people if you can or shun them if you cannot. If you have been in contact with negative persons for more than a year, it is enough proof that you are not able to inspire them. Leave them. It may be hard, but it must be done; ask me; circumstances forced me to also make the difficult decision to shun people close to me. I regard my happiness and peace of mind far greater than the infection from a negative attitude.

We are there to inspire people and serve them; to add value to their lives. This is a worthy mission to live for, even if you do nothing else.

Next time – Part 4 – Embrace the Nietsche Moment.