The Most Unattractive Quality

The Most Unattractive Quality
By: Lindsey Richardson

I I have read a lot of self-help books and been fortunate enough to see a lot of great leaders speak live. And I realized recently as I sat in the seats watching another great leader Dave Ramsey (with our Fitness Quest 10 team), that often times many leaders are sharing the same principles. What is important, is finding a person who speaks to you in a language that you understand. And Dave did just that; he used humor, one of my favorite languages.

As I sat there laughing, he said you want to know what the most unattractive quality is (in his southern twang)? Of course I did! And oh man did I cringe when I found out what it was! And he said, “Being ungrateful is the most unattractive qualities you can posses.” I heard that and thought, “I have definitely have had that quality lately.”

Often times we are ungrateful and don’t even realize we are doing it. And as I sat in the seat listening to Dave’s southern twang, laughing and realizing so many great lessons, I started to think back to the night before, where I was pretty looking pretty unattractive.

I was on a run with my boyfriend complaining about how we didn’t spend that much time together lately. When I look back at moments like that, I cringe. And I have had many of those in life. You hear the person you were being at that moment and think, was that really me? Did I really say that? And although I can’t take that back, what is important is putting yourself in positions to continue to learn so you can look back at a moment like that and learn, apologize, and move forward.

When I looked back, I realized that I was suffering from a little jealousy of what other people were doing. I had heard about all of these cool activities and adventures people had going on, and that made our run look so simple and ordinary. It is easy to get caught up in other people’s lives and what they are doing, but the best piece of advice we got recently is, “You got what you got.”

Naturally in life we are all jealous. You see something shiny and exciting and you want that too. What is hard is being happy with what you have. And “You got what you got” isn’t meant to mean settle. It means that you must recognize and be grateful for what you have at the present moment. And often this takes a conscious effort to tell the voices in your head to take a backseat!

Another great lesson, if I keep focusing on other people’s lives, I will miss out on my own. After all, I missed an amazing 5-mile run because I was too busy being ungrateful. And what I realize over and over again in life is that what matters most is the quality time you spend with your partner, the cool activities you do are just a vehicle to spending that time together. So for now, I am focusing on being present, grateful, and remembering, “I got what I got!”