Enemies and Allies : Both are needed! And a great advantage to you!

With age comes wisdom, as they say. And I think it’s true, and truer for some of us and not as true for others. Over the course of time, you will encounter both alias and enemies on your journey. Think D&D if you ever liked role playing games as a kid. During the adventure campaign, you would encounter a series of other characters, and some would be allies and some would be enemies. The easy part is when the encounter was obvious. The enemy showed themselves from the onset and the allies did the same. The challenge lay in the times when you could not discern which was which and only in time did you come to find out the true intention of the character encounter.

Regardless, if you “adventure” enough in your own life. You are bound to meet both types of people. The important thing is to know which is which as soon as you can. Be keen, develop your instincts. And be sure to always try and figure out which is which and what is what. And when you do, be clever in your use of each. With allies, spend time with those people. Engage with them, ask questions, provide insight, and take what they say to heart and try to apply it to your own life and circumstance. Work to strengthen those relationships and to inspire them to continue to be an ally. Relationships, especially quality relationships require effort. Make that effort, through genuine engagement and time. And those messages from those allies are not always pleasant, sometimes it can be a bit harsh. But try and focus on intent. I recently heard from someone that I view as an ally that emotions are often unreasonable. And that made sense to me. As people, we should be thinkers. And use our thoughts to better understand the message being said. While we have both emotions of the heart and mindfulness from the brain. It’s our mind that should control our emotions. And our emotions that inspire and motivate our minds.

What about enemies, they also play a big part. And if we lived in the land of milk and honey, this would not be a concern. But we don’t, and we will encounter these people. Use them to your advantage. Learn from what they do wrong, take inspiration from how and what they do to try and thwart your goals. Make your encounters brief and spend as little time as possible with those that fall here. But know, they exist, so be aware. And through that early time spent, you’ll find clarity on which is which. For the enemy often is disingenuous, and often insincere with their message and effort. While the opposite is true for the other.

And while this story can be a bit overly dramatic in its language. It’s the underlying message that should be taken to heart. I find myself asking that question, ally, or enemy? And I use the term enemy even though the person may not be malicious in intent. It’s just maybe the choices they make, the beliefs they have or the habits they exercise. And if it’s someone that matters, be their ally, tell them what’s what. And be that encouraging force. Just know, we can never make anyone do something or be anything, that comes from within.