by Jannett Morrow
tool
/to͞ol/ - noun
1. a device or implement, especially one held in the hand, used to carry out a particular function. (www.google.com)
What’s your understanding of what a tool is? Does it fit with this definition or is different? Well, I want to stretch this definition a little. Can a tool also be something that is not held in your hand? Well, I believe so.
The last part of the definition says a tool is used to carry out a particular function. Well, with this in mind, what particular function does your mouth carry out? What particular function do your emotions/feeling carry out? What particular function does love carry out? Can these be tools? I think so.
Now you may say, how so? Well, when you use your mouth to speak, it’s for carrying out your thoughts, needs, desires, etc. When you express your emotions/feelings, it’s to carry out how you are doing in a given moment. When you express or extend love, you are carrying out the notion that you care about someone or something, in some way.
This is a different way of looking at what tools are, but it can help you to use them more efficiently. Just like you can use a shoe as a tool to hammer a nail, I have done it. A more efficient way to hammer a nail would be to use the tool of a hammer. Don’t you think? Efficiency can help you to get more of the desired results you are looking for in life.
Let’s stick with the tool of your mouth for a minute. How are you using it? How kind are you being with it, towards yourself or others? How much love are you extending with it? Do you think this is important? I would venture to say, it’s very important. The more you use it to carry out the particular function of expressing good things, then the more you will be experiencing a more fulfilled life. There is cause and effect in this equation. This does equal that.
In a study done in the Journal of The Association for Psychology Science, researchers from US Riverside, stated that positive activities increased well-being. They found that people could increase their level of connection to others through intentional, positive activities such as offering kindness and expressing affirming thoughts and gratitude to others. (ornish.com)
Positive activities can include kind words you use towards yourself and towards others. So, with this in mind, kind words can be tools. I hope you can see this. When kind words are used and heard, they can carry out a particular function of expressing positive effects for the hearer and the speaker. The effect is increased well-being. This is great!
What’s In Your Tool Belt?
What is your energy like? What are you putting out into the world? Are you the kind of person people like to be around or one that people want to stay away from? Have you given this any thought? Well, maybe you should, if you have not. This says a lot about who you are as a person.
If in your tool belt you have kindness, love, respect, consideration, compassion, encouragement, joy, peace, generosity, etc., and you use these tools, I can imagine you are a wonderful person to be around and your energy, is inspiring.
On the contrary, if you have in your tool belt, anger, resentment, bitterness, hatred, lying, manipulation, selfishness, controlling, negativity, gossip, etc., and you use these tools, I can imagine you may not be a person people want to hang around much.
I would encourage you to take some time and evaluate, take an inventory of the tools you have and are using from your tool belt. What particular functions they are expressing in your life? Are they helping you build your life or tare it down. Important to for you to know.
Now you know I am not speaking of an actual tool belt, but a metaphoric one. So many reactions in life, to things that are adverse, can be made better, if we take the time before hand to make sure we are equipped with the right tools to manage a given situation.
From the time you were a child your tool belt had been being stocked with different tools. Some that are helpful to you and some that are truly not helpful to you. Now that you are older, you have to see what tools are not longer needed and take them out and what tools are needed and put them in.
Tools of abuse, neglect and abandonment, that unfortunately are too common to some children growing up, which you may have suffered yourself, try to carry out the particular function of destroying your life. Haters use these tools tare down a person’s life not build it up. The unfortunate byproduct of these tools can be hatred, self-harm, low self-esteem, value or worth. Can be mistreatment of others, addictions, hardness of heart, and many other things.
You have to make up in your mind, however, that if these negative tools were used against you, by the haters, you will not let your tool belt be filled with the byproducts. You will replace those tools with positive tools, like compassion for other and empathy. Love and hopefulness. These tools that will help you to be a better person than the haters. This is a very good tool belt to have!
Do Haters Matter?
They do because they can help you to take stock in how your life is. Help you to do some introspection. We need to do this from time to time to see where we may need to make some adjustments. Haters can help to force you to work out your full potential. Do you know they are present to come against your great potential from being expressed. However, you can let it have the opposite effect. Will you?
They also matter because they can help you to rise above whatever they are trying to say to you to bring you down. The energy of haters can be fuel to help raise your energy level to becoming a better you. Tis should always be welcomed, even when it does not feel good, it can still help you.
Haters can be a person or can be anything that is trying to hinder you from moving forward and stop your forward progress. They are trying to stand in your way of your next level emerging. Don’t let them!
Just like when you lift weights or exercise if you have done so. The temporary pain or discomfort, if you press through it, it can give you the desired results you are looking for. If you let the pain or discomfort defeated or stop you from moving forward, then you will not experience what the other side, your next level could look like. Don’t let this happen! Look at haters as useful tools for your growth and development. Really, they are! Keep your forward progress coming.
Let Me Rearrange My Tool Belt
Everyone likes to be liked, wanted, or belong. Even if some try to act like they don’t need that, they do. You do! This is a part of life. Even those who hate, they are really trying to get some form of attention to feel liked, wanted or belong. They go about it in wrong ways, but that is their secret goal.
Now how do you make sure you are not one who is a hater? Well, good question. This is where some rearranging of your current tool belt comes in. Be real about it, do you have envy, in there? Do you have jealousy in there? Do you have coveting other’s things in there? Do you have comparing yourself to others in there? Do you have one-upping in there? You know, trying to make yourself better or more valuable than others? Please don’t be this person. Not cool!
If you hold any of these things in your tool belt right now, it’s time for some rearranging. You should want to present your best self to the world. I am sure this is what you want from it as well, the best it has to offer you. Well, it’s a give and take proportion. It’s two sided. You can’t expect positive to come froth if you are giving out negative ones. God did not set things up to be like that. Have you heard of the principle that you can’t put old wine in new wine skin. Basically, because it will mess up the new. It will not be able to fulfill its particular function.
The same for your tools. Again, the particular function of your tools should be to bring forth, love, peace, compassion, unity, harmony, etc. Not the opposite of these things. Do you agree? I hope so!
How To Be Energized By The Haters
Haters can be bullies. Use their bullying as energy/fuel to go higher. Use their words as energy/fuel to fulfill your purpose. Words are great motivators. They can motivate you to move or to stay. Be stuck or not be stuck. To be broken or be built up. They carry out different particular functions. They are also tools. You determine, however, how they will function in your life.
Many people in their lives have turned around mishaps or negative things that had been said about them or to them in life, to do good and make a difference in the world. You are no different in what you can do. Turn it around!
Soak up their negativity and covert it to fuel/energy for your day. Don’t let the haters defeat you. You are better than that! Make sur the tools you are working with are being help to your build process. The masterpiece God wants to bring forth out of your life, will take you using the right tools to put things together. Let it happen! You can do it!
You spread love with your words. You spread hope with your presence. You spread joy with your smile. You spread encouragement with your laughter. All are tools at your disposal, and you possess. Use them!
Be energized!