Quotes and Life Lessons

For the most part, I like quotes. I like browsing and reading and finding one or two that encapsulates what I think or feel or even how I behave. They remind me of who I aspire to be and where I've come from and my past mistakes and triumphs.

My Aunt, when I was sixteen, handed me a book entitled, "You Are Not The Target" by Laura Archera Huxley. Not exactly fun reading for a teen-aged girl, but then, I've never been the typical anything. What I basically got out of it were these two bits of information:

The only thing in life I can control is myself.

If I am not the cause of someone's bad mood, I'm not going to take responsibility for it.

The two statements are not direct quotes, at least I don't think they are. They've been in my head and life for so long that I feel like they are more my words than belonging to someone else.

But I do live by these two quotes. I have OCD tendencies when it comes to control, about what it is that I DO have control over. If I hear of something new, for instance, I need to know more about it. Wiki or the dictionary are my first two stops. Personal knowledge is something I can control. If I can't remember a fact or a name or a song, I'll hunt it down until I have it. A friend commented, upon leaving the house without his phone, that he would have felt more comfortable if he'd left his dick at home. I feel that level of uncomfortableness if I'm unable to look something up. That probably qualifies as a OCD tendency.

The second is a bit harder to put into practice; there are a couple people in my life who know just what buttons to push to send me over the edge, but for the most part, I tend to not react when someone is going off the deep end. I've learned to roll things off my shoulders instead of taking an insult or a snide remark personally. Who knows what day that other person is having? I like giving people the benefit of the doubt and figure they are just having a bad day. Some people are just complainers. Some people lash out when they are in pain because they don't know what else to do. I get that and tend to look for reasons for the behavior, rather than the behavior itself. I learn more about others and myself and am healthier emotionally because of it.

Not to say I'm not impulsive at times, I am. Not to say I don't react instead of thinking then acting, I do. I'm not perfect, but this is my life; I only get one, and I like to be happy.

And if you know anything at all about people with an INTJ personality, this makes perfect sense to you.