A cascading avalanche of trials can crush us. Despite the gory disaster, all you need is a friend who cares and loves you to hear you out.
Be that friend, and your problems will suddenly seem a meager embarrassment.
Tag: vision
- Theme: Self
Being a friend
°
1–2 minutes - Theme: Self
everyone politely condescending to everyone
°
1–2 minutesWaiting in line, I listened to a clerk direct everyone with professional condescension, all polite smiles and belittling slow speech.
She glanced at my paperwork and told me I needed a different form. After a polite argument, I followed her orders and waited again. This time she realized I had it right the first time, so I smiled my condescending smile and realized this is how society survives: our petty polite niceties, our passive one-upmanship. - Theme: Self
losing your voice
°
1–2 minutesI lost my voice for half a day at a company function.When communication takes too much effort, we tend to retreat into ourselves and become isolated.
I learned two things: one, be sparing with your voice (you didn’t need to talk so much anyway), and two, some people are without a voice every day (be more sympathetic).
- Theme: Self
Do not avoid stress, run towards it.
°
1–2 minutesWe spend much of our lives avoiding pain or distress, assuming happiness will arrive when anxiety has dissipated.
Yet, joy and bliss are intense feelings grown from overcoming challenges and fulfilling psychological goals.
Running away from stress is self-defeating: neither solving the problem nor producing an ecstatic state of owning a problem and overcoming it.
- Theme: Growth
Good days require perspective: purpose/meaning
°
1–2 minutesKnowing what you care about is another way to keep events in perspective: everything else falls away when you have one shiny goal. Truly knowing your purpose does not mean harmonization and balance but passionate pursuit and upheaval in your life as you bend your heart towards your desire.
- Theme: Self
Good days require perspective: the present is what you wish it to be
°
1–2 minutesThis moment, right now, is new. And it can be good if you will let it.
We are going to focus on something. we can declare it good or bad. Or we can avoid focus and drift, not really living as much as fulfilling our allotted time.By deciding, loosening your grip on self-inflicted pain, you can make this moment amazing. - Theme: Self
Good days require perspective: future you would be ashamed
°
1–2 minutesPicture yourself on your deathbed, and you’ll realize that you never really wanted to keep everything at a moderate low hum of annoyance and make it through the day, trading minor abuse for fleeting rays of happiness.
You wanted to believe in something and throw yourself into it, caring deeply about it. You wanted to live a courageous life following your bliss. - Theme: Self
Good days require perspective: past made manifest
°
1–2 minutesHaving a good day seems to come from keeping things in perspective while being present.
One way to do this: shift frustration into being grateful because, at one point, the problem (responsibility or job or lack of a job) you have today was a desire you had in the past.
You made your world; take pleasure in it. - Theme: Self
size matters: don’t sweat the small stuff
°
1–2 minutesThe small stuff may be insignificant, but how do we know which daily actions impact our character, and which to release?
Consider who you want to be in the future and if your present self is mirroring those values or being pulled into anxiety.
We tend to gravitate towards small things because we can control them to soothe our insecurity. However, if we can control them they truly are small things, probably unworthy of anxious behavior that can shift into manipulating or discounting others.
- Theme: Growth
Pissy problem solver
°
1–2 minutesI am always pissy until I solve a problem.
This means I am perpetually annoyed because life is nothing but problems (challenges) I seek to exterminate. A healthier approach is to cohabitate with problems; accept instead of conquer.