Have You Checked Your Tires Lately?

I'm not talking about the tires on your car, even though it's a good idea to check them. They could be under inflated or worn. They could be a safety hazard that could hurt you, your family, or someone else.

But I want you to think about your other tires. Think about the tires you're dragging around all the time.

Have you seen the ads on TV showing Tim Tebow flipping the HUGE tire over and over down the field?

Have you seen athletes working out dragging tires? They wear a strap around their waists attached by a strong cord to a large tire. They run around the field or track dragging the tire expecting to get stronger and expecting to develop better endurance. It makes sense to drag those tires around. Apparently it works.

Your tires are nothing like the athletes' tires. Your tires are emotional, not physical. Your tires wear you out and destroy you instead of building you up.

Your tires are worries and negative thoughts.

Earl Nightingale talked about worries. Let me paraphrase:

• 40% of the things we worry about will never happen. Why worry?


• 30% of the things we worry about are over and done with. Why worry?


• 12% of the things we worry about are needless concerns about our health and will probably not happen. Why worry?


• 10% of the things we worry about are petty, miscellaneous things that aren't worth our time. Why worry?


• 8% of the things we worry about are real, legitimate concerns about yourself and your family.

Ninety-two percent of the tires we drag around are things what will hurt us emotionally and physically if we keep dragging them around.

Ninety-two percent of the tires we drag around are NEGATIVE THOUGHTS that ultimately lead us to depression and stress; that will cause us to look for alternatives to the pain; that will destroy our relationships; that will cloud our thinking and our emotions so much that we can't effectively resolve the eight percent of things we ought to be worrying about.

Let me restate that. When our minds are so full of negative emotional thinking, we are hampering or limiting our ability to make good decisions about the things that are important.

Check Your Tires

Grab pen and paper. Make two columns: one headed “Good Tires” and the other headed “Bad Tires.” Over the next few days, just put check marks under the appropriate columns when you recall the kinds of thoughts that you've been dwelling on. Don't spend a lot of time thinking about it, just put the check marks in the appropriate column. In fact, if you find yourself dwelling on a negative thought, simply say to yourself, "I don't want to think about that anymore."

I predict that you'll be amazed how close your percentages are to Nightingale's percentages in the list above. You'll be discovering the true nature of the tires you're dragging around.

In fact, I invite you to save the link to this post and come back in 3-7 days with a comment about your tires. Tell us your percentages! This might be fun as well as enlightening.

God bless,


www.findingpersonalpeace.com

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