One of the pitfalls of trying to learn is becoming overly critical. It is also the downfall of working as a ‘cyber cop’ tracking trademark and counterfeit trends online.

Becoming overly critical

It is an easy place to find and a hard place to get out of – and unfortunately, it is a place where I have had the horror of waking up too.

You see – I want to learn. And part of learning is looking at those who have gone before you, finding their mistakes and trying not to repeat them. It is a good model and has worked since the beginning of time.

However, if one is not careful, you can – like myself – wake up one day taking the good things for granted and focusing solely on the things not done or done poorly. You justify yourself by saying that of course you agree with what they are doing – it is just the things their not doing that you are trying to change.

This justification works…at least for a while.

Then you find yourself naturally looking for the faults instead of looking for the good. This is when a good thing went too far: from thinking critical to living negatively – all in the name of ‘learning’ and ‘leadership.’

May the Lord of Hosts help me climb out of the pit and back on the balance beam of life. Back on the “sunny side of life” as Ada Blenkhorn once put it:

There’s a dark & a troubled side of life
There’s a bright, there’s a sunny side, too
Tho’ we meet with the darkness and strife
The sunny side we also may view

Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side,
Keep on the sunny side of life
It will help us every day, it will brighten all the way
If we’ll keep on the sunny side of life