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)
Define Success
What exactly is success? If we take a look at the definition in the dictionary, there a couple of different descriptions. Firstly, it is "the accomplishment of an aim or a purpose", and secondly, it is "the attainment of fame, wealth, or social status". Pretty standard descriptions of what success is, hey? Irrespective of what is written in the dictionary, we actually all define success in a variety of different ways, relative to whatever personally brings us great happiness and satisfaction. We could define the marriage to our partner as being a success. We could define the fact that we have a job as being a success. We could define a job promotion as being a success. We could define achieving our lifetime goal as being a success. We could define owning our own house as being a success. We could even define the fact that we have woken up this morning as being a success. Success really doesn't have any boundaries, it basically all depends on our perception of what it is. Even the likes of failure can be viewed as success. Work that one out! Anyone who has ever travelled the road to achieving their goals would well know that there are many failures, setbacks, challenges, and rejections to be experienced along the way, but unless we succumb to these adversities, and give up on our journey, then they are actually a blessing for us. How is that so? Well, these such times provide us the opportunity to show adaptability, resilience, patience, and creativity, as each time, we are forced to work hard on devising a solution to overcome these adversities, if we are still determined enough to achieve our goals. In doing so, we are actually learning, growing, and developing ourselves in the process, and that is indeed a success in itself. Bettering ourselves in any manner is a success, and when we continually strengthen our character and mindset, we can often find that success begins to multiply in various aspects of our life.
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Judge Me However You Want!
I don't know whether it's just a maturity thing or what it is, but as we transition from being a young adult, through to our middle aged years, and then to our senior years, we start to care less and less about what others think of us. Well, at least most of us start to care less anyway. We finally begin to understand how insignificant it really is to be so concerned and worried about how others perceive us, or what their opinions are of us. We finally start to tire of constantly trying to please others, and we start to realize that having concerned ourselves about what others think of us, for so long, has only ever brought us unhappiness, and drawn us away from creating the life that we desired. Sadly, for most people, so long had been their concern to please others, to be liked, to be respected, to be accepted, and to be admired, that a huge portion of their life has passed them by. Although it's never too late in life to start pursuing one's goals, age does become a factor in some regards, as we become a little more limited in what we can do. We become a little less agile, productive, and energetic, as age slowly begins to take its toll on our body. Not only that, but we can't disregard the fact that achieving significant goals naturally takes time also, often several years. So when we put this into clear perspective, if we discover in our middle to latter years that pleasing other people, being concerned about what others think of us, being worried how others perceive us, and being so focused on having others like and accept us, is in fact detrimental to our happiness, wellbeing, and the pursuit of our goals, we have likely just wasted half of our life away, even more, being unhappy and unfulfilled. The question has to be asked, why does it take so many of us so long to finally realize this?
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
No Apology Necessary!
One thing I have learned to do a lot better over the past few years is finding the courage to admit when I am in the wrong. There have been many times where I have acted out of line, times where I have acted immaturely, and times where I have said things that were unjustified and unwarranted, all in which have unfairly impacted on other people. I've had to put my pride aside and admit to my wrong doings and errors in judgement. Many times it has taken me several months to have done so, but an apology is always better late than ever, after all. On the flip side, there have been several times in which people have wronged me also, where they have unfairly criticized, ridiculed, and categorized me, and were incorrect in the information they passed onto me, and yet there was no apology or retraction whatsoever from any of them. To this day, these certain individuals will still refuse to admit they were in the wrong, and were totally out of line with their attitude and their criticisms. They refuse to accept that they are human, and they too, make mistakes. Sadly, their pride is of more value to them than relationships with other people. It's hardly surprising that some of these relationships I had with these people have since soured. It's really frustrating when you make the concerted effort to do the right thing by others, and be apologetic to them, when you are in the wrong, only to have others too stubborn and proud to admit when they are at fault in return. Sadly, that's just how most people are. They don't want to come over as being weak, as being imperfect, or perhaps as being inferior. It's funny, that even when these such people have overwhelming evidence and proof against them that they are indeed in the wrong, they will still refrain from apologizing. They try and find some other way to justify their words and actions. As frustrating it may be, we don't need to lower ourselves to their standards. What should matter to us is how we conduct ourselves, how we treat others, and be constantly living by the values we know are morally correct. We can't control how others choose to behave and live their life, but we can at least set the standard, and role model those values and behaviours. Therefore, never be ashamed to be human, and admit to your errors and mistakes. Always seek to provide an apology where it is due.
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
The Power Of Music
I have always been, and continue to be, a music tragic. Pop me in a nightclub that plays those good old pop/rock tunes of the 1980's and 1990's, and I'm so in my element. I'd be front and centre on the dancefloor, with a vodka in my hand, singing at the top of my lungs. If there's a stage to dance on in that club, I'd be up dancing on that, probably after downing a few vodkas though. Sadly, as I continue to age, those days of going out nightclubbing are becoming far and few, and what's worse is, the minimal number of clubs around that actually play that sort of music nowadays anyway. These days, it's all about dance and trance, and personally that's not the genre of music that inspires or thrills me. One thing is for sure, we all have our own different tastes in music. From classical, to jazz, to country, to pop, to rock, to dance, to trance, to blues, to reggae, to soul, to R and B, to funk, to hip hop, to you name it, there are so many different genres of music to choose from, that we are guaranteed to find a certain style of music that appeals to us. We should never underestimate the power of music, and what a blessing it is to have in life. I indicated above one aspect of this power that music possesses, and that is the fact it can bring us happiness. Dancing in a nightclub, singing at the top of my lungs to songs that I love, being played at an extremely loud volume, isn't the only avenue of happiness that music brings me. During my school years, the only times I could ever concentrate on my homework was when I had music playing, to help inspire me, and keep me interested. For some reason it just helped me to focus better. I've been a drummer since primary school, and I absolutely love every opportunity to be hopping behind a drum kit. When hopping in the shower, I have my Spotify playlist blaring away, as I sing along whilst having a wash. Every evening, whilst doing my work, I place a set of headphones over my ears and crank some tunes up on full blast, whilst my daughter sleeps. One of the most satisfying experiences I have in life though is when I hit the open country road in the car, driving away with my favourite songs playing out loud. I could drive for miles doing this.
By David Stidston3 years ago in Beat
Push Ourselves
Greatness and excellence; two qualities that every single person on this planet possesses, yet only a small percentage of people ever showcase it. Let's throw in another word here, and one in which greatness and excellence are revealed, and that is "potential". Potential is defined as having "latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness." If we then summarise all this information above, basically, greatness, excellence, and success are all achieved when one first identifies their abilities, skills, and talents, and then continues to grow and develop them. So why is it that only a small percentage of people in the world showcase greatness and excellence, and the potential within them? Sadly, the answer comes back to our three headed monster once again, being fear, doubt, and laziness. As a whole, humans are comfort addicts. We base our life around our means of survival, which is completely understandable, but we then establish ourselves a routine and a way of living in which we find safety, refuge, and of course, comfort. As far as protecting ourselves and our loved ones from the risks of physical harm and the threat of death, seeking safety, refuge, and comfort makes complete sense. The problem is, we don't just use this theory to save our lives, we also use it when it comes to our livelihood, and that's where the problem starts, and when it comes to the reason of why so many people fail to achieve greatness, excellence, and success in life. Our livelihood is of course about securing the necessities in life for ourselves, such as food, shelter, clean water, clothing, and money. Without these necessities, we would find ourselves starved, dehydrated, exposed to the elements, on the streets, in poverty, and even deceased. Therefore, we do whatever we need to do to ensure our livelihood is in order. So what do we do? We establish ourselves into a routine of adequate survival, to completely minimise any risk of being exposed to a lack of necessities. In doing so, this routine then becomes our comfort zone. It's the method we place our faith in for our means of survival, we become accustomed to it, and it provides us that security and peace of mind. In clearer terms, basically it all comes down to having a job, as a first and foremost priority, which pays us an income in exchange for our time and effort, so we can have the food, water, shelter, and clothing we need in order to live a decent life. The thing is, for most people, it doesn't matter what job you have, even if you despise it, even if it makes you unhappy, even if it leads you to depression, even if the hours are ridiculous, or even if it pays you diddly squat. Getting that income is everything. How is that really living though? Busting your arse off for 45 years of your life, at a job that you hate, making barely enough money to meet bill payments and put food on the table. That's not living, that's merely existing! That's what most people do though, because they follow what most of society does, because they feel compelled to, and that's exactly why most people don't achieve greatness, excellence, and success in life.
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Stronger
Okay, so today's blog entry is for the love junkies of the world, who have perhaps been emotionally hurt and ruined as a result of a previous relationship or marriage. Love is undoubtedly the most powerful emotion one can experience in life, with happiness a close second. A lot of the time, happiness comes part and parcel with love, but it's not a given, especially if one person isn't fully committed to that relationship. It's an unfortunate fact that many people fall victim to placing their happiness in the hands of love, and in a partner. They believe that it becomes their new found partner's responsibility to make them happy, when the reality of life is, that's not their responsibility at all. We are actually all individually responsible for our own happiness. That's where so many relationships are broken, because one of the, or both, partner's expectations are not met. They blame their partner for not making them happy, when the reality is, they are often not even applying themselves to the relationship themselves. When two people come together and live by the values of open communication, compromise, trust, faithfulness, honesty, understanding, and support, then happiness should become a natural part of a relationship anyway. It also helps to have some things in common, I must personally add, but it's not a necessity to make love work. My parents were proof of that! The problem is that too many people think along the lines of an individual, rather than as a couple. Whilst we need to pursue our own goals, and create our own happiness, it doesn't shirk our responsibilities to applying ourselves to our relationship either. That's where compromise, open communication, and support are paramount. We should be openly communicating with eachother about our goals, and the decisions and actions that are required for us to get there. We should then be compromising with eachother around how the decisions and actions of both parties are going to work, to ensure that neither party gets hurt. Above all though, we should be supporting one another, because the moment we cease doing that becomes the moment the relationship begins to fall apart. The best case scenario is that you both have a common goal that you are working towards, and are continually uplifting and encouraging one another on the journey.
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Let Go Of What Is Hurting Your Heart And Soul
Like me, there are many people worldwide who reflect on their past with great fondness, courtesy of all the wonderful memories that were made from such good times. Such was the joy and happiness that our past offered us, we really wish we could time travel, just to go back and experience all the good times again, perhaps making the odd subtle change here and there. I'd love to go back and relive the days from the mid 1980's through until 2000, they were the good old days. There are also those who reflect on their past with an immense amount of hatred, disappointment, and disgust though. So bad were some of the experiences and circumstances they encountered, in which they faced an horrific amount of pain, suffering, and hurt, it has really destroyed them emotionally and mentally. They have perhaps lost complete trust in people, they have perhaps lost the capacity to love others, they have perhaps lost the will to find positivity in their life, or anything of similar sorts. Whether we have lived a wonderful or tragic past, the good news for both groups of individuals is that we all have a future ahead of us, and we are in complete control of shaping it the way in which we desire. I miss the past greatly, and I do wish I could bring my loved ones back from the grave, such as my Dad, my Mum, my grandparents, my cousin, and my aunties, and I wish I could relive those days, but I know that's not possible. Because those times were so enjoyable and memorable, it's easy to create the belief that the best times are indeed behind us, but how do we know that the best is actually still yet to come? It's exactly the same thought pattern as with the group of individuals who had a tragic past, as they easily adopt the belief that because life has always been so horrible and demoralizing to this point, that it will continue to be the same in the future. Again, how do they know that some amazing times aren't just around the corner for them? One thing is for sure, whatever we allow our minds to believe, we will more than likely manifest those beliefs into reality. If we believe life will continue to be crap for us, it probably will. If we believe that our best years are behind us, they probably are. What if we started believing that our greatest success, memories, happiest times, and triumphs are still ahead of us instead? If we changed our thought pattern, and truly believed these blessings can eventuate, it's funny how quickly our mood can improve from a simple thought and belief change!
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
There Is No Peace Without Forgiveness
Think, for a moment, about the emotions and feelings you experience after someone does wrong by you, deceives you, undermines you, ridicules you, belittles you, criticizes you, defames you, or breaks your trust. After such an experience, naturally we feel hurt, upset, frustrated, sad, pained, unloved, betrayed, unappreciated, and quite often angry. For so many of us, when someone inflicts such emotional pain and hurt upon us, our first instinct is to fight back and emotionally hurt them in return. Sadly, many people unfortunately even resort to physical violence, as they completely lack will power, restraint, and mental control. What's the last thing we often find ourselves thinking about though, when someone is inflicting emotional pain and hurt upon us? Forgiveness! Here is this individual making us feel like crap, making our life difficult, making circumstances inconvenient for us, and making us feel worthless, and yet, how is it that the wisest thing for us to do in response is to be forgiving them for their actions? Forgiveness has to be undoubtedly one of the hardest actions to do in life. To let someone hurt and pain us, only to then sit back, accept it, forgive them for their actions, and move on, hardly seems a fair response. I admit, it does sound silly doesn't it, because we naturally believe that if someone is as low and disrespectful enough to pain and hurt us in some manner, then it would only be justice that they receive the same treatment in return. Humans are sticklers for revenge. So many of us love finding a way that we can inflict hurt and pain back on them, but in doing so, all we are doing is being just as low and disrespectful as they are. We are sinking ourselves down to their standard, and yet we have the audacity to accuse them of being rude, immature, and nasty. Then I suppose we resort back to the good old "well they started it" reaction. So they did, but what so many of us fail to realize is that the most ultimate revenge on someone is to actually walk away, ignore them, and forgive them.
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Que Sera, Sera
Written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans in 1955, was a song that was made famous by American singer and actress, the late Doris Day, called "Que Sera, Sera". Day would perform the song in the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock film "The Man Who Knew Too Much", and such was the popularity of the song from the film, it was subsequently studio recorded, and peaked as high as number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the USA, whilst going all the way to number 1 in the UK. The lyrics basically point to the progression through the life of the narrator, starting from childhood, to young adulthood, to falling in love, and then to parenthood, with each stage of life posing the question of what one can expect for their future ahead. Each time the question is asked, the same reply is given, being that whatever will be, will be. There are six words that are repeated as part of the chorus that hold great importance and truth, and those words are: "the future's not ours to see". As much as it would be lovely to time travel, and gain some insight into various answers about what the future holds for us, such as what age we will pass away, what will we end up achieving in our life, and what joys, sorrows, triumphs, and tragedies will we encounter, unfortunately we aren't privileged in obtaining such information. Who knows what lies ahead in the future for us? It's a question that can certainly fill one with a range of different emotions, such as anxiety, stress, concern, hope, encouragement, doubt, fear, and uncertainty. There's one good thing about the future though, and that is that we can shape it. We may not know what's ahead for us, but we do have the power to design it in a manner we desire. Unlike the past, the future does offer hope, promise, encouragement, and possibility for us. We cannot change the past, and all that we have done, whether right or wrong, as it is now etched in the pages of history. If you're actually human, there will undoubtedly be moments, decisions, and actions that you would so desperately love to take back, because you know now they were bad choices, or complete errors of judgement. We can dwell on these for as long as we want, however it's not going to get us anywhere. It's not at all beneficial for us, and in fact, it is greatly hurting us, and our mindset. We cannot change the past, so why spend precious energy and emotion on something we have no control over? So, we therefore need to alter our focus!
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Filthy Language
Gone are the days where your parents would ask you to wash your mouth out with soap and water if any swearing ever came from your lips, it seems. Nowadays, you only just need to pass a group of school kids on the street, or in a shopping centre, and it's pretty much a given that you will hear them swearing their heads off. In fact, it's no different when passing by adults either. Expression in the form of filthy language has become yet another one of society's acceptable standards of behavior. Swearing is seen as being "cool". If you don't swear, or if you are against people swearing, you are basically laughed at, criticized, mocked, ridiculed, and belittled. Everybody swears, right? So if you don't swear, you're classed as abnormal. That's society for you! If you don't believe, if you don't act, if you don't behave, and if you don't follow, all in the same manner as most other people, then you are categorized as being weird, and ultimately, ridiculed for it. It's no surprise that a celebrity like Gordon Ramsay can attract a multitude of viewers to his television shows. It's not because of his cooking experience and talent, it's because of the way he talks to people on the show. He constantly swears at them, but his ratings are high because people think it's cool and funny. An intelligent way of earning ratings and cash indeed, but he's degrading his character in the process. No one deserves to be spoken to the way he does to people on the show, but again, it's all for the sake of ratings, because people relate to swearing. The man has incredible talent in cooking, why the need to resort to swearing to sell himself? Whilst you may believe it's cool, acceptable, normal, and helpful to swear though, what is it really proving?
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Expectations Lead To Disappointment
How does it make you feel when you believed that your partner would call you this evening, yet they never did? How does it make you feel when you believed you would receive a job promotion, but you didn't, and it was instead handed to another one of your work colleagues? How does it make you feel when you go to have a nice hot shower, only to find that there is no hot water at all? How does it make you feel when you go to the grocery store, and then get stuck in a long customer line at the checkout? I could go on and on with so many different scenarios, because they all involve expectations, and expectations are something all too common for us, which is not a good thing. What emotions and feelings do you get from the above sort of scenarios though, when you are involved in such situations? Disappointment? Anger? Hurt? Sadness? Rejection? Frustration? One thing is for sure, they are not exactly emotions of great joy, jubilation, and happiness! But why do we feel this way? Is it really that bad that our partner didn't call this evening? Perhaps they were busy, they were detained, or they had another engagement to attend to. Does it truly mean they don't love us, or are we just being a bit precious? Is it really that bad that we missed out on a job promotion that we believed we were a certainty to get, when there just might be something even better that comes up in the near future for us anyway? Is it really that bad to have to wait in line for a few minutes at a grocery store, because the staff are overwhelmed with an influx of customers? Sure, these things may be a little inconvenient and disappointing, but they're not the end of the world. The problem is though, because we set expectations for so many things, these feelings of disappointment, inconvenience, anger, frustration, hurt, sadness, rejection, etc begin to compound. With an ongoing barrage of negative emotions, we start to find ourselves living in constant unhappiness. Is that really living?
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation
Worthwhile Goals
We know that fear, doubt, and laziness are three of the key factors behind why most people fail to achieve their goals in life, and succumb to failure as a result, but none of these three are actually the biggest factor. Try and work this one out; the biggest reason behind why people fail to achieve their goals in life, is because of the goals themselves. No, it's not the goal's fault why people fail to succeed. No, it's not because the goals are unrealistic or unreachable. The reason is the goals are simply not attractive or important enough. When we commence the journey towards achieving a goal, we start off all motivated, inspired, and excited. Here we are, about to start doing something for ourselves, and be working towards something that will bring us great satisfaction, happiness, and success, but how is it that we go from being all motivated, excited, and inspired, to just throwing in the towel, and quitting the journey? For anyone who has ever embarked on the journey to achieving a goal, you would well know that it's far from an easy experience. I think, prior to starting such a journey, most of us underestimate just how tough and challenging it can really be. We envisage that we will begin to see results within a few days, a few weeks, or maybe a few months perhaps, and yet, these results fail to eventuate in line with our expectations. For those who have persevered long enough to reach even the 12 month point in that journey, you would likely had felt that success still seemed like a long way off. All that we seem to encounter on this journey is failure, setbacks, rejection, opposition, and criticism. With all these negative results, it's only natural to become discouraged, frustrated, upset, angry, and demotivated. All the hard work, time, and effort that we are applying to creating this success, it feels like it is all being wasted. So we reach a point on this journey where we confront a choice. We either need to keep suffering through these adversities, setbacks, failures, and challenges, or we can just go back to the less stressful and less demanding way of life we had prior to starting this journey. Each time we continue persevering, and we encounter another negative result, we face the same question.
By David Stidston3 years ago in Motivation