Exploiting the positive side of certain compulsive behaviors

Exploiting the positive side of certain compulsive behaviors

I remember when I was a kid playing war with plastic soldiers, my friends would get angry and wait for me to arrange my battalions in straight lines before the battle started. Later, when I was home to do my homework, I spent time organizing my books, pencils and pens on one side, pencil sharpener and calculator on the other. Everything was set within my reach in the order I would use them. My older sister would sometimes come along and mess everything up just to make me mad and I would stop working just to set it up again.

It is something I have fought against for many years but have never been able to get rid of, as my mother called it. Believe it or not, my teenage room was always in perfect order, my clothes, CDs, shoes, everything had a specific place where it had to be. I never saw it as a problem. It's part of who I am. My friends and family called me crazy and often lost patience waiting for everything to be just right. And then I went to university and everything changed, all my classmates wanted to study with me, everyone wanted to work with me on their projects, I went from the worst to the best.

I studied industrial and electrical engineering, we had a lot of projects, terms and procedures to study and learn and not enough time to do it. From the beginning, there was a difference between my classmates and myself, my compulsion became an asset. I worked quickly and efficiently on my projects, programmed my lessons and learning time perfectly and in the order I specified. I graduated second in my class behind someone who was thought to be even crazier than me. During the four years at university we had the opportunity to work together several times and we were dynamite together. Today he is a consultant for NASA and I am a writer retired from engineering.

It is up to each of us to accept special characteristics and eccentric ways of doing things that we have. It's up to each of us to learn how to use them to our advantage. Most of the time, it's much easier to find a way to use certain behaviors in a positive way than to try to change them. In fact, you may waste years trying to correct or change these behaviors and never be able to do so. It doesn't matter what people think about you or your ways, what matters is what you think about yourself and what you do with what you have. The only way to be happy in life is to first be happy and content with the way you are as a person, not what you do or how much you have, but who you are.

It doesn't matter how old you are, what you do, or what you want to do if you haven't come to terms with yourself at this point in your life. Now is the time for it. Everyone in the world has a reason for being in this world. In one way or another, we are all part of a larger scheme, a larger picture. It's not fair to be unhappy with yourself when you are; You will also make those around you unhappy. That's not fair; We all have our own problems and situations to solve. Look at yourself, see what is inside you, accept who you are and be happy. You owe it to yourself and those who love and care for you.

Life is too short to waste it complaining or trying to change what you can't change. Embrace life and turn these supposedly negative traits into great assets for your life and that of your family. Success and happiness are in your mind and heart, no one will give them to you, your destiny and your life are yours. Every person shares his or her life with others, but the way you feel about yourself and the way you travel on this road called life is your choice and no one else's.

Inspired by Cesar A Batres Mejia