David Stidston
Bio
My name is David Stidston, and I am a single father to my 8-year-old daughter Mia. We live in the beautiful city of Hobart in Tasmania, Australia. I am currently self-employed, working as a freelancer and casually in market research.
Stories (216)
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Ten Quotes About Our Need To Lead
If you look up the definition of a leader in the dictionary, you will find words to the effect of " a person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country." For most of us, when we think of someone who is a leader, or someone who is in a position of leadership, we perhaps automatically think of our respective country's prime minister/president, or we think of our boss at work, or we think of someone in charge of an event or organization, or we think of someone who is a senior/long term member of a group/team, with many years of experience. Leadership extends a lot further than simply someone who is "in charge", or being someone of vast experience though. In so many instances, we see individuals in a position of leadership, yet they only ever fill the role as a manager. These individuals have both an obligation and responsibility to be a leader, in the relative roles they are placed into, yet they lack the attributes, attitude, behaviours, traits, mindset, and characteristics that a leader should possess, and this leads to nothing more than management, not leadership. Someone could have really great organizational and time management skills, but it doesn't necessarily make them a leader. I can think of at least three different managers that I worked under, during my time in the corporate world, who completely lacked the attributes of a leader, even if they may have thought themselves as being the bees knees. They were perhaps achieving credible results from a business perspective, but on the flip side, they completely lacked people management and coaching skills. All they focused on was profiting for the company, so they could get their name up in the lights, and be recognized for their contribution and work. The thing is, when you don't have the skills to inspire your team, show empathy, respect, and consideration to them, and role model/demonstrate the right behaviours and attitudes, then you immediately lose their respect. That and you fast demotivate them. Results may filer through, but they could be so much better with proper leadership, not to mention the fact that many staff end up leaving the workplace altogether anyway, as they are not happy with the environment they are working in, and I'm talking good quality staff too.
By David Stidston4 years ago in Motivation
Ten Quotes About The Importance Of Living Your Own Life
In the space of just two weeks, at the end of last year, I had no less than six different people voicing their opinion to me on how I should be living my life, and how I should live my life in the future. The more I think about this, the more I just shake my head. I don't know whether to laugh about it, be annoyed about it, be disgusted about it, or what? I just cannot believe the nerve of some people. Then I think to myself, hang on, as frustrating, laughable, and annoying this may be, this is nothing more than normality and reality within society. It's a sad fact, that so many people live their life telling other people how they should live theirs. Granted that some advice is constructive, because we should always have people surrounding us and encouraging us to strive for our goals, to be encouraging us to reach our full potential, to be encouraging us to work hard for success, and to be encouraging us to be constantly bettering ourselves. The truth is, very few people genuinely give us constructive advice that is actually for our benefit. Instead, they give advice on what they believe is best for us, what is convenient for them, and what best fits their agenda. The advice they give is based on what they want for us, not what we want for us! When you step back and take a look at the bigger picture, you will come to realize that the overwhelming majority of people who offer their advice on how you should live your life, actually aren't even that successful themselves, if at all. They are giving you advice based on their thoughts, beliefs, and own requests, rather than providing beneficial advice based from personal development education, and best practice tips from those who have actually achieved success in life. They have failed to achieve what they want in life, so they don't want to see you achieve what you want either, otherwise that makes them look inferior and incompetent.
By David Stidston4 years ago in Motivation
Ten Quotes To Encourage You Into A Habit Of Daily Meditation
I never was a believer in meditation, probably because I never really understood it. I just thought it was nothing more than some form of religious act, but then again, I was always very naïve. Having spoken with a medical professional earlier on the year, after I entered into a time of severe depression, they advised me to give meditation a go, to try and help me with my mindset. They referred me to a certain meditation app, which I wasn't exactly that inspired about trying out, but I'm sure glad I did. When we think of vital organs within the body, we think of the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the lungs, the pancreas, and so forth, but let's focus on the brain for a minute here, because that contains one of the most important components of our body, which happens to determine our destiny. I'm talking, of course, about the mind. The mind is what determines our thoughts, our feelings, our decisions, our actions, our mood, our behaviour, our attitude, our beliefs, and our emotions. It's from the effective and productive use of our mind that we can guide ourselves towards success, happiness, and prosperity, but when we fail to use it in such a manner, we can often find ourselves living a life void of such blessings, satisfaction, and fulfilment. We allow the stresses and worries of everyday life to overwhelm us. The unfortunate truth here is that most people don't use their mind effectively and productively. It's not that they don't want happiness, success, and prosperity, quite the opposite actually, but they just lack the ability to control their mind. Their minds are filled up with destructive thoughts, beliefs, and behaviours, all because they allow others to easily influence and manipulate them. They become too focused on pleasing others, and trying hard to make others like them, when all the while they are sacrificing a life of happiness and success in the process.
By David Stidston4 years ago in Motivation
Ten Quotes To Steer Us Away From Negative Minded People
When I first entered into depression, back in 2010, not only did my outlook on life change for the worse, but so did my behaviour and attitude also. For much of the following decade, I became this negative minded, easily angered, nasty, spiteful, and frustrated individual. I had become this horrible version of myself that I never ever wanted to become. Not only had the depression drained the happiness out of me, but also the positive characteristics that I possessed throughout my life, such as generosity, kindness, compassion, understanding, care, and love. I'd become nothing more than this pathetic little bitter, angry, and miserable person. How anyone wanted to associate with me throughout this period of my life still totally escapes me. I did manage to put on a brave face, with a radiant smile, for much of the time, but inside of me was this extremely unhappy, frustrated, and negative minded person. I knew the main trigger for my depression was my job, and the corporate world in general, for that matter. I was sick of working long hours at jobs I hated, that were making me miserable. I also knew that if I was to rediscover happiness in my life once again, there was going to be more than a change of working environment to solve that. I needed to better the environment I was living in, full stop. So I thought to myself, other than work, what else was making me unhappy, angry, frustrated, bitter, and miserable? The answer; people!
By David Stidston4 years ago in Motivation
Ten Quotes To Encourage You To Seize Your Opportunities
Think for a second of the emotions you would be experiencing and feeling, at this very moment, if had you achieved one of your life goals today, a positive life transforming goal at that. You'd feel pretty chuffed, yeah? There would be a great sense of satisfaction, happiness, joy, fulfilment, pride, and accomplishment, undoubtedly. Now ask yourself, why haven't you achieved your goals as yet? The timing is not right yet? Haven't had the chance to work towards them? Haven't had the money? Still in the process? It's quite interesting how we all have these wonderful visions and hopes of what we wish to achieve in life, and what we desire for our future, that quite often run through our head, and yet so many of us fail to actually engage in the actions that will lead us to accomplish these goals and aspirations. It's like we just sit back with anticipation and expectation, relying on prayers and wishes to deliver us what we desire in life. We just lack that drive, motivation, and will power to actually get off our butt and turn these hopes and dreams into reality. But we don't want to make ourselves feel bad for not doing so, so what do we do? We make excuses, of course. We don't have the time right now, or work has been too busy, or we will get around to it soon, or we just don't have the money right now to invest in our goals. Blah, blah, blah! We are simply trying to excuse ourselves for being lazy and unproductive. Maybe we are just scared of striving for them, or we doubt our abilities. There's no denying that life is full on! There's always deadlines to meet, commitments to honour, tasks to complete, bills to be paid, and so on, and so forth. Life can become very stressful and overwhelming, and time can feel extremely limited. The thing is, there are people, from both past and present, who have achieved their goals and immense success in life, who have been limited to exactly the same number of hours in a day as we get each day. No one has the privilege of having more than 24 hours in their day! They have proven they can use the time effectively enough to create success for themselves, so why can't we? The difference between those who are successful, and those who are not, is that the former seize their opportunities.
By David Stidston4 years ago in Motivation
Ten Quotes To Encourage You To Pursue Your Passion
I would love to gain insight on just exactly how many people worldwide, could honestly say the words "it's not my work, it's my passion", about the job they do, or the business they run. If the statistic that 9 in every 10 people hate the job they are working, is anything to go by, then I'd suggest there would be a absolute minimum number of people that could say these words, and actually be honest about it. The fact is, very few people actually love their job. For most people, work is nothing more than a way of making a living. A job is the only legal option people see fit in which one can generate an income. It's also the only working option that society sees as being acceptable, for that matter. Now working a job is indeed an acceptable option of work, and a legitimate way to earn an income, that's not the issue here. The issue here is that the overwhelming majority of people settle for any old job, and something they actually do not enjoy, or even hate. Actually, for most people, they don't even believe that work can be enjoyable at all. It's not possible to be enjoyable in any way, so society has led us to believe. How is it though that still 1 out of every 10 people can find satisfaction, fulfilment, happiness, and enjoyment in the work they do? This minority group of people are proof that work can indeed be enjoyable, and the secret to finding that enjoyment isn't that difficult to discover, for those who don't like their job. The difference between those who love and enjoy their work, and those who hate and don't enjoy their work, is that the former have made the effort to find something they are passionate about. They have actually done the hard yards, they have done some research, they have applied themselves, they have even potentially made some sacrifices, and they have made the effort to enter into a job or business that they are passionate about. They have refused to settle for any old job, just for the sake of earning an income, like most people do. They knew, that with the right attitude and effort, they could enter into a line of work they truly love and enjoy.
By David Stidston4 years ago in Motivation
Ten Quotes To Inspire Perseverance To Achieve Your Goals
With the Tokyo Olympics taking place in Japan at this present moment, I feel it's quite a fitting time to talk about human attitude and mindset. All the athletes who are competing for their respective countries have had to wait five years for this competition, since the last Olympics were held in Rio De Janeiro back in 2016. For some of them, it will be an opportunity to experience Olympic glory once again, but for most, it will either be their first opportunity, or perhaps another opportunity, to taste that Olympic glory for the first time, something in which they are desperate for, yet never achieved. Whilst it is an honour in itself to represent one's country at the Olympics, each athlete is out there to win a Gold medal, which is naturally their ultimate personal goal. Four years is a long time to wait for a chance at success, with this time around being five years. It's a harsh reality, but blow your opportunity, and all that hard work, training, time, and effort put in between games, in those four long years, can quite often feel wasted. In between games, these athletes may taste such personal accomplishments as world titles and championships, but I'm sure most athletes would tell you that level of success doesn't compare to winning a gold medal at the Olympics. Imagine how frustrating it would be, winning all these championships, and being crowned the best athlete in the world, in a particular sport, but continually failing to achieve that elusive Gold medal, come Olympics time. One individual, that comes to mind, who has dominated competition in her sport for numerous years, yet always seemed to fall short of glory at the Olympics, is Australian canoeist Jessica Fox. That was, until last week.
By David Stidston4 years ago in Motivation
Ten Quotes To Highlight The Importance Of Personal Development
It's a disturbing fact, that the most important thing in life to so many people worldwide, is money. Family would come in as a close second, but money is still the number one priority to them. How is such a conclusion drawn? Simple! Just look at the decisions people make, and the actions they take, on a daily and regular basis. The purpose behind most of the decisions they make, and actions they take, revolves around money. Working at jobs they don't even enjoy, working extraordinarily long hours, sacrificing quality time with their family in exchange for spending excessive time at work, regularly purchasing lottery tickets, sacrificing working towards their goals in exchange for dedication to their job, declining to invest in opportunities for potential long-term success and prosperity due to the risk of losing financially, you name it. Everything seems to revolve around making as much money as they can, with the need for little work and effort I might add, or being over protective of what they own, or using it to spend on material things. There's desperation in finding whatever source they can, to obtain money. Money, money, money! Then there are those who believe that investing their money, in order to make more money, is the best investment one can commit to in life. On the last day of our life though, what have we really achieved, living a life that is focused on money? We have spent years working our butt off at jobs we didn't even like or enjoy. We sacrificed so much, for so many years, to finally pay off our mortgage. We wasted so much of our life at work, and missed out on some quality time, and the potential to have created some wonderful memories, with those we love. We missed out on the opportunity to achieve most of our goals. We spent most of our life feeling unsatisfied, miserable, unfulfilled, and unhappy, because we were constantly living life to the expectations of society and other people. And we sit on the edge of our grave, with our bank account looking the healthiest it has ever been, only for these funds to be inherited by others to use. It's nothing more than a wasted life filled with regret and missed opportunities. All this, because we were too focused on, and dedicated towards, obtaining money.
By David Stidston4 years ago in Motivation
Ten Quotes To Remind You Of The Power Of Positive Thinking
We can't hide from the fact there are a lot of negatives in life. Living in a day and age where life is fast paced, stressful, demanding, challenging, and pressuring, with constant deadlines and commitments to meet, compounded by all the tragic and adverse events and circumstances that take place in our life, it's easy to be drawn in by all of these things. Our mind becomes easily sidetracked by all this negativity, pressure, and adversity, that we completely lose sight of the fact there are also so many positives to life also. Many people actually get so caught up in the negativity, and in their adverse circumstances, that they develop the bad habit of only ever focusing on the negatives in life. They cannot identify any positives for themselves, even though, the real truth is, there are a significant number of positives. I think it's because we set ourselves expectations in life. We envision how our life could and should be, and when it doesn't go to plan, which is usually always, then we become agitated and frustrated. We become like an infant being denied of a chocolate bar, as we carry on, we whinge, we complain, and we sook. Life isn't all lollipops and rainbows though. There are going to be adverse times, and moments that will trigger emotions of sadness, pain, hurt, suffering, and hardship within us. It's inevitable! Just because we are being challenged and tested, doesn't mean we have to focus our attention on these adversities. By all means, we should have an awareness of them, and be working on resolving any issues that we have the ability and control to fix, but we don't have to allow our mind to be overwhelmed and solely focused on it. What we need to be doing is focusing our attention on things that bring us happiness, joy, satisfaction, hope, and fulfilment.
By David Stidston4 years ago in Motivation
Ten Quotes About What True Love Really Means
What is true love? What does it really mean? For many of us, we have our own definition of what true love is, and it's probably fair to say that we set these expectations in our mind whenever we enter into a new relationship with someone. After all, what is the point of entering into a relationship if it's not true love we are after? The general consensus among society is that true love is defined as "an unwavering and unparalleled fondness and devotion for someone, whilst having a personal emotional and physical connection with them, so strong that it's unimaginable and unthinkable to live life without them". Entering into a new relationship, most people would actually adhere to this definition. The first few months, even into the first few years, there's complete dedication, commitment, loyalty, faithfulness, fondness, and intimacy evident. It's that good old honeymoon period of a relationship where couples love spending lots of time together, they miss one another greatly when apart, there's that distinct element of romance, and there's a lot of intimacy. We become convinced that after two or three years in being in a relationship with this person, whom we have fallen in love with, that we are destined to be with them, because all has felt right to that point, so we take the plunge into marriage. This is where so many people go wrong. It only takes one member of that couple to believe that there's always an out to that marriage, and there's the problem straight away. There's no disputing that there are valid and understandable reasons to ending a marriage, such as domestic violence and infidelity, but for a high number of people, it's just a simple case of being unhappy, or because they seek something new and exciting. It's sad really, because happiness can never be found within another person, but only within ourselves. If we are not happy in a marriage, then we have an obligation to communicate with our partner, and be working on rejuvenating fun, satisfaction, and excitement to it.
By David Stidston4 years ago in Motivation
Sacrifice To Achieve Success
Enjoyment, luxuries, pleasures, relaxation, fun, moments of satisfaction and peacefulness. These are the sort of things that we can't get enough of in life, because they indeed bring us happiness and joy, albeit for only a brief period of time here and there. From spending time with our friends, to lazing on the couch watching television, to gaming, to browsing social media, to dining out, and to sleeping in, these are all the type of activities that we can't get enough of, because they are easy, they are leisurely, and they require little effort and energy to do. Then we have the material things that we enjoy in life also, such as shopping for new clothes, treating ourselves to the new technological gadgets on the market, buying a new car, and shouting ourselves to brand name products. Oh how much more enjoyable life would be if we had millions of dollars to spend, and didn't have to worry about the likes of work, so we had more time to do the more leisurely and enjoyable activities in life? Such a life is a dream for so many of us. The issue is though, that for most of us, we don't have that wealth to live the high life that we desire, nor do we have that spare time up our sleeve to be spending on activities that involve little effort and energy, and that are good fun. We have that space invader on our daily schedule board that is labelled as "work", that we have a commitment to, and that consumes so much of our time. Perhaps work may not be so bad if we were raking in the dollars, but again, for most of us, that's not the case. So we are left with the situation that we continue on spending so much of our time at work, earning only enough income to get us by, and experiencing those few moments here and there where we can do some of the more enjoyable activities, and perhaps shout ourselves to the odd treat here and there. We hang our happiness hat on the weekend, annual leave, and that occasional shopping spree, basically. Not much of a life really, but that's the way how so many of us live. The truth is, we can live a life of prosperity and happiness if we want to, but most people choose not to, not for the fact we don't want such wonderful rewards and blessings, but for the fact we aren't prepared to change our ways, our habits, our mindset, and our attitude.
By David Stidston4 years ago in Motivation
Your Future Is Found In Your Daily Routine
It's no secret that whatever decisions we make today will ultimately determine our future. Decisions, of course, aren't really decisions without subsequent actions to support them either, meaning that whatever actions we take today will also determine our future. Let's be honest and state that the decisions we have made, and the actions we have taken, prior to this point in time, have led us to where we are today. Whether we are happy and satisfied with our life in general, or we are only happy and satisfied with some aspects of our life, or whether we aren't happy with our life whatsoever, we are where we are today as a result of the choices we have made, combined with the actions we did or didn't take, throughout our history. If we aren't happy in life currently, it isn't as a result of external circumstances, or because of other people, like many of us foolishly believe, it's because we have made some wrong choices, and because we have the wrong mindset and attitude. Those of us who have failed to achieve the success, happiness, satisfaction, and prosperity that we have so desired to achieve, can often look at those who have achieved these rewards in their life, with a complete sense of envy and bitterness. Because we haven't achieved what we desire in life, it creates that element of frustration and anger, maybe because we feel hard done by, or we feel that we have deserved better, or maybe we feel that others haven't deserved the success they achieved. Many of us then try and pick out flaws with those who are successful, in an attempt to defame them, and bring them back to the same level as ourselves. It's this negative and immature mentality that if we can't have success, happiness, satisfaction, and prosperity ourselves, then why should anyone else receive such privileges? The real truth is, these successful individuals have worked hard, they have made sacrifices, they have evident talent, and they have been patient. We just refuse to accept that fact, all because we know deep down, that we don't possess the same behaviours, attitude, and work ethic as they do.
By David Stidston4 years ago in Motivation
