Seek The Good And Avoid The Bad

One of my favorite sayings goes, "Seek the good and avoid the bad". I like it because of its simplicity. The advice contained in this simple little sentence is good for everyday living and for preparedness as well.

If something hurts you, you avoid it. If something is good for you, you seek it out. This applies to people as well as things, places, and situations.

It is easy to let your emotions cloud your judgement, especially in the chaos that surrounds a disaster. Once you take a deep breath and calm down you can tell more easily what seeking good will mean for that situation. 

It is not always obvious how to avoid the bad, either. At first glance, a person, place, or thing may seem innocuous or even good. Once you find out more, what once seemed good, turns out to be bad. It is like candy. A beautiful piece of 
candy can look very good, but once you eat it, you get a kind of buzzed out sugar high and then you crash when that is over. It also leads to health risks like diabetes, obesity and heart problems, etc.

Some examples of places are: I would not want to be on top of a skyscraper during an earthquake or New York City during a nuclear attack. Those bad places are not bad all the time, just during some situations.

Preparedness is good when it lets you stay home before a big storm. Everyone else will be risking being trampled to death at the hardware and grocery store. Those are bad places to be when everyone who is not prepared suddenly realizes they are not ready.

During your daily life and during a disaster you want to seek the good and avoid the bad with people. Some people make you feel bad to be around. An example is a friend I had a long time ago. 

She was funny, witty and charming. When she was around a certain group of people, it was different. She would use sarcastic wit to make a friend the butt of a merciless stream of wisecracks to amuse the group. I decided to avoid her after I realized she was not going to change. 

Sometimes you can't avoid people who make you feel bad, but you can spend the minimum necessary time around them. You can also lessen your emotional investment, in people you are forced to be around, who make you feel bad. That will lessen the damage they can do.

It is like taking the remote control for your feelings away from them. It is better for you to keep your remote. That is a way to seek the good and avoid the bad.

You can seek the good and avoid the bad in very ordinary things. That rug or door mat that always trips you - get rid of it or fix it. If you always bump your head on something in your home, put a corner guard or it or do something else to solve the problem. 

Constant annoyances may seem small, but they can have a worse effect than the big ones. Your life will be better when you seek the good and avoid the bad.