David Stidston
Bio
My name is David Stidston, and I live in the beautiful city of Hobart, in Tasmania, Australia. My aim is to inspire and motivate as many people as possible, to pursue their goals, and create a future blessed with happiness and fulfillment.
Stories (216/0)
The Root Of All Evil
Is it true that money really is the root of all evil? The answer to that question is "no", it certainly isn't the root of all evil, because money can actually provide the most wonderful of blessings, rewards, and help, to all of us, in life. It's interesting to hear that statement thrown around though, because funnily enough, it doesn't truly capture the complete message of what was written in the Bible, as people seem to believe, not entirely anyway. There's no denying these words are indeed written for everyone to see, however if we actually refer to 1 Timothy 6:10, in which we find this phrase, we will quickly see a whole different meaning to this message. The actual phrase reads "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." It completely changes the complexion about the phrase, just with those four words added to the beginning; "for the love of". You see, it's not money that is the root of all evil, it's humankind's love, desire, and desperation for it. As I mentioned, money can be used for a plethora of options to better our lives, and the lives of others, however the problem is that too many of us are possessed by it, and we fail to use it for the greater good, but instead to satisfy our own greed and selfishness. Whether physically possessing it, or just hungering for it, what a great majority of people would either do, or currently do, is either keep it entirely for themselves, spend it on luxury items, or spend it on material things. Meanwhile, across the globe, we continue seeing an ever increasing trend of poverty and homelessness.
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Your Time Will Come!
In a world that is so fast paced, and one in which time is so precious and valuable, it can be extremely hard to exercise patience. These days, many of us can't even go to a grocery store, and not get agitated and frustrated when we see a line up at the checkouts. It's because we know we have far more important things to be doing than wasting time lining up at a supermarket checkout. Having previously worked behind the telling counter at a bank, plus as a checkout manager at a grocery store, there would barely be one day that went by in which there wasn't at least one customer who would complain about having to wait in line. Whilst many companies tend to shortchange the frontline of their business on staff numbers, just to save on costs, much of the time, queues form off the back of an influx of customer numbers, who all seem to have a habit of flocking in at the same time. Not that it's prearranged or anything, it's just that people have the same idea at the same time. Even in the business I run nowadays, many customers basically want their product delivered yesterday, such is the impatience of humankind. When it comes to achieving our goals, success, and wealth, our impatience tends to be at its worst, and most destructive. Most of us know exactly what goals we want to achieve, what we desire, and what will provide us happiness and satisfaction, the problem is, the majority of us don't want to have to work for it. We want it now! Sadly for us though, life doesn't work that way. To achieve our goals, not only is there a lot of hard work involved, but a lot of effort, a lot of energy, a lot of commitment, a lot of dedication, a lot of perseverance, a lot of resilience, and above all, a lot of patience.
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Believe And Achieve!
Many of us underestimate the power of the mind, especially when it comes to our own. As a result of outside negative influences, combined with what we are educated to believe by society, our friends, our teachers, and perhaps our parents, we tend to live our life completely restricted, as a result of the limiting beliefs we have formed in our minds. Each and every one of us have immense potential, skill, and ability, within us, yet so many of us go through life without revealing this talent, all because of our limiting beliefs. We don't believe that certain actions, or certain opportunities, can truly bring us success and reward, because such actions and opportunities didn't work out for others. Without even trying and knowing for ourselves, we instantly rule them out as outlets to success. We don't even know the real reasons behind why others failed at it, we just take their word on it, and adopt it as fact, especially when several others express their failure at it also. All someone needs to do is label an opportunity as a scam, and it sends people running, when in reality, it may be a genuine opportunity in which several people failed to apply themselves, and just expected the results to eventuate. Most people will never admit to failure though, in a bid to avoid feeling embarrassed and inferior, so they will pass blame on the opportunity, or perhaps other people. That opportunity may actually be a perfect fit for us, and the solution to achieving our goals, but because others have shamed it and criticized it, we adopt the belief it's a scam, ultimately limiting an avenue we had to success.
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Fight For The Lifestyle You Desire!
Personally, when I hear the word "lifestyle", I think of living a life in which one's schedule, routine, activities, and habits, provide them with satisfaction, fulfillment, reward, balance, and enjoyment, whilst keeping themselves healthy in the process. Perhaps that is how you also perceive lifestyle as being? Interestingly, lifestyle is defined as nothing more than the way in which an individual lives. One thing that is for sure, the way in which we live our life should indeed bring us great happiness, satisfaction, fulfillment, pleasure, and enjoyment, otherwise we are not really living at all, but rather existing. I'd like to say that's how most of us live our lives, and it's probably what most people would say they are doing, just to keep up appearances, but the truth is, most people are indeed not at all happy with their lifestyle whatsoever. You only need to look at various social media posts, or have a chin wag with people, and you'll quickly hear, or see, the complaints and unhappiness come to the surface. Lifestyle, of course, can be broken down into various different components. There's work, family life, relationship, sleep, exercise, diet, leisure activities, socializing, health (including mental health), goals, spirituality, and even finance. To tick the boxes in each of these categories is one hell of an achievement, as we know that life often throws us curve balls, and there's always some area suffering adversity, and in need of attention. These adversities are a given, and can often be a sign that something is not right in our in life. Perhaps we are with someone who is not the right fit for us, or we are somewhere we shouldn't be, or doing something we shouldn't be doing, or we are just heading in the wrong direction in life.
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Stop Impressing, And Start Influencing
For many of us, much of our behavior, decisions, actions, views, thoughts, mannerism, and style, is based around trying to impress others. We seem to be hell-bent on trying to fit in with others, desperate to be liked, accepted, admired, and respected. In fact, many of us cannot stand the thought of not being liked by others, and then, in turn, we try our hardest to please them. We often set the expectations on ourselves to please everyone all the time, when the reality is, such a feat is not even a possibility. This sort of behavior all starts from as far back as our schooling days, as we try so hard to make friends, fit in with the "cool kids", and be popular. It's sad that this sort of mentality leads us to destruction, not satisfaction, or success. We end up becoming a person not true to ourselves, as our decisions, actions, behavior, attitude, thoughts, views, and mannerism, aren't truly reflective of who we really are. So what happens? We end up leading a life of trying to please others, rather than pleasing ourselves, because our decisions and actions are based purely on what we believe will impress others. What we don't realize is, it's not impressing others that leads to success, satisfaction, happiness, and fulfillment, it's influencing others that creates the greatest impact.
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Why Do We Do It?
What job do you want to do when you grow up? How often were we asked that question throughout our childhood? From a young age, we were brought up and educated to believe that once you left you left secondary school, you would then progress to university, and then once you earned a degree, you would find a job. Life was always painted out to be perfect, mapped out beautifully that we would find the job of our dreams, we would buy our own house, we would get married, we would have a family, and we would live happily ever after. A few years into adulthood, we soon realize that life is nothing at all like how our parents and teachers hinted it would be. It's bad enough that we suffer through relationship break ups, and we seriously struggle to make a life for ourselves financially, in our early adulthood, but the worst part to it all is, the job we have is far from enjoyable and satisfying, as we were educated to believe it would be. So here we are, finding ourselves trudging off to this crappy job that we hate, five days of the week, with only the weekend left to enjoy. Then, as the years pass by, we do find that partner we end up marrying, before starting a family with them, and all of a sudden, the weekends we once enjoyed going out with our friends, becomes about sitting at home changing dirty nappies, listening to temper tantrums, and attending children's birthday parties. Don't get me wrong, raising a family is one of the greatest blessings in life, and spending time with them forms some of the most wonderful memories, but it's a far cry from the freedom we once had in our late teens, and early twenties, going out clubbing with our friends, and leaving the worries of the world behind us, to drown in the alcohol. It's certainly a change in lifestyle, but it's not the weekend that's our issue, as we still enjoy that time with our family, it's our life during the week that sucks!
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Health Is The Real Wealth
I personally know of numerous people who bust their butt off for their job or business, working long hours, and who average around just 5 of sleep each night. They basically leave at the crack of dawn, and don't return home around 6pm-7pm, time enough for dinner, a shower, and at least a couple of hours with their family, before bedtime. As it is, some still come home to do more work. One particular friend has always stood by his motto of working hard and maximizing the hours he has awake, and then he can sleep when he's dead. I'm sure a lot of people around the world live life in the same manner, especially entrepreneurs and executives, who work their bum off to build profits for their respective businesses, yet sacrifice their sleep in the process, likely also family time. With the time spent within their business, another activity that often goes by the wayside, is exercise. With their stream of income on the line, the importance of creating profits is absolutely crucial, hence why they believe they need to work long hours, and sacrifice other aspects of life, because it's money they rely on, and what they believe determines their survival and enhances their future. Those who work in corporate jobs aren't much better either. Many people work long hours, and even work overtime unpaid, to remove any potential they may possibly be dismissed off the back of not meeting the company's requirements, and losing their income source altogether. Let's be honest, no matter what work we do, many of us place so much emphasis on, and prioritize any actions, that are income producing, or to do with money. We do it to ensure we have food on the table, to ensure we have a roof over our head, and to ensure we have some funds left over to live some sort of quality of life. At what cost though, are we doing so?
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Happy People Plan Actions
I think a vast majority of us, who are over the age of 30, could reflect on some memories of our past, and easily identify many moments, occasions, and events, that brought us great happiness. They are likely more apparent in our mind, if the life we currently lead isn't bringing us great satisfaction, fulfillment, success, and enjoyment. It's the type of situation we wish we could just go back in time, back to when life was good, where we encountered less stress, less pressure, and more fun. It's actually quite easy to start believing that the best times of our life are behind us. Perhaps we regret not having lived more in the moment, whilst we had the chance? Both life and time can be cruel, as it starts to feel like happiness feels more and more hard to come by, as we continue to age. Life becomes all about paying bills, managing our finances, working our butt off at a job we hate, for years on end, providing for our family, and remaining committed to our partner and relationship. Gone are the days we used to head out nightclubbing, drinking, and partying with our friends on the weekend, living at home with the parents rent free, and having next to no commitments to worry about. It's not to say we don't have moments of happiness nowadays, but it just doesn't seem to be on the same level, as we feel starved of that satisfaction, fulfillment, and true enjoyment we once had. The reason behind this loss of happiness, satisfaction, and fulfillment, is because we have allowed ourselves to become stale and stagnant, simply having just accepted the circumstances and situation we are in, as being life. It's normality to society, and we've allowed it to become normality for us too, when really, life is trying to push us to grow and develop. It's the reason why so many people are unhappy, and even depressed, in life, all around the world, as we speak.
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Growth, Development And Maturity
As humans, one of our biggest flaws lies within our impatience. If we desire something, we don't just want it, we want it now. Proof of this can be seen all around us, every single day, and perhaps we, ourselves, are part of that proof. Such an example is humankind's desire for wealth and financial freedom, as rather than apply ourselves to years of hard work, sacrifice, perseverance, and commitment, we instead seek out short cuts. Rather than investing our money in our goals and our future, we instead invest in lottery tickets, in the hope we can achieve that wealth and financial freedom without the need to barely lift a finger. Another example lies within humankind's ambition to achieve success, and rather than proving one's worth through hard work and the demonstration of their skills and talent, many people rise to higher positions purely from who they know, not what they know, bypassing the need to work hard. Of course, it's only natural to want success, wealth, and the accomplishment of our goals, in our life right now, but to achieve such rewards without having worked hard, having exercised patience, having proved our resilience and determination, and having demonstrated our true skill, talent, and creativity, would be like making and eating a pizza without any toppings. This pizza may be food, and we could ingest it as it is, yet we would be eating nothing more than the pizza base, the dough, that is bland and near tasteless. If we took the time though, we could add pizza sauce, cheese, ham, capsicum, onion, tomato, pineapple, or whatever pleases our taste buds, and we could turn that unsatisfying pizza base into something truly delicious. Achieving our goals, success, and wealth, is no different. If we apply ourselves, exercise patience, reveal true resilience, and genuinely prove our worth, we can turn that success, wealth, and accomplishment, into reward with real satisfaction.
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Passion, Love, Generosity And Hard Work
For many people, the ultimate goal is financial freedom and wealth. To them, it's about working their way up the corporate ladder, in order to receive an executive's salary, or to be generating substantial profits within their business, and with either of these results, they are classified as success. Either of these pathways lead to a higher income, and increases the potential to create wealth and financial freedom for oneself, but is this really success though? It's long time been considered by many, that money is what generates happiness, satisfaction, and fulfillment, in life, when the truth is, it doesn't. It's a myth that money solves all our problems, and that life can become totally stress and trouble free. Whilst, when used wisely and effectively, money can definitely be a beneficial commodity that can enhance our life, it's not what delivers happiness, satisfaction, and fulfillment in life, hence why it doesn't form the complete picture of success. Climbing the corporate ladder, or generating substantial profits within our own business, are definitely great achievements, there's no disputing that, but the question remains as to our true purpose behind achieving these goals. Are we really climbing the corporate ladder, or operating our own business, because we are genuinely passionate about the work we do, and we have a strong desire to serve, lead, encourage, uplift, and support others, or are we truly doing it for the sake of a higher income? The answer lies in how we greet each day, after waking from our sleep. Are we inspired and driven by our work, that we are excited and motivated about getting out of bed, to get stuck into another days' work, and do something we love, or are we simply dragging ourselves out of bed, dreaming about doing something more enjoyable and satisfying, yet are pretty much forcing ourselves to go because the pay is good?
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Our Future Is In Our Own Hands
What quality of life do we really have, without having any goals to aim for? What quality of life do we really have, without taking action to achieve the goals we set? The answer to both those questions is the same; a poor one. Without setting goals, and then working hard to actually achieve them, we are not truly living at all, just merely existing. Life is about happiness, satisfaction, and fulfillment, as after all, we are here on borrowed time. Each day that we fail to set goals designed to enhance our own life, but also to uplift and serve others, becomes another day wasted, as too the days that we fail to apply ourselves to the actions that are working towards those goals. Although we have no insight to the time we are blessed to have on this Earth, it doesn't excuse us from planning for our future, and our decisions and actions should always revolve around making that future as awesome as possible. The truth is, our future is in our own hands. How our future pans out comes back to all the decisions we are making, and the actions we are taking, right now. If we have devised our goals, have clear direction, and are in the process of working towards those goals, likely our future continues to become brighter every day we do so. However, if we are just sitting back, wishing, wanting, and expecting life just to deliver us the happiness, success, and prosperity, we desire so greatly, our future is becoming more and more grim by the day. The future will provide us with nothing more than regret, unhappiness, and misery, and the worst part to this is, there's no second chances. The time for action is now!
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
The Good In Our Life
We may not realize it, nor wish to comprehend and agree with it, but the truth is, much of the reasoning behind our unhappiness, misery, and depression, in life, is our own fault. We are in the position, the circumstances, and situation, we are in today, due to a string of decisions we made, or didn't make, and actions we took, or failed to take, it's as simple as that. Many of us refuse to accept that, nor do we do something to improve our circumstances, and instead, we just spend our time whinging and complaining how we never get what we desire in life, constantly feeling sorry for ourselves. The worst part about this is that we all actually have some wonderful people, and wonderful blessings all around us, that we use, and take for granted every day, yet we fail to appreciate them, instead choosing to focus on our selfish wants and greed. Life is challenging, and can often drag us down to great depths of depression, pain, sorrow, and adversity, to which none of us are exempt, but we quickly forget about all the good we are actually blessed to have in our life. So many of us make the decision to direct our mindset to all the negatives, and to all the things we don't have, perhaps off the back of the negative influence of others, or the envy we have towards those we deem to have a better life, or nicer possessions. It really highlights the lack of control over our mindset. If we simply changed our focus from what we don't have in life, to actually appreciating all the people, and all the things we do have in life, our entire perception of life can be transformed, as too, our attitude and behavior.
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation