Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress.
— Nicholas M. Butler
Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Well, it seems we all are. In Love Beyond Reason, John Ortberg goes all the way back to the story of the Three Little Pigs to make a point. I know you remember the story, but just in case you want to watch the Disney version, you can see it here. Ortberg points out that every life has its Big Bad Wolves. No matter what we do, the Big Bad Wolf (BBW) comes to visit us many times throughout our lives. We never know what form he will take and there is no way to avoid him. In life, there are Big Bad Wolves and we need to deal with them. (Sometimes several of them gang up on us all at the same time — after all, wolves run in packs.)
What to Do About All That Huffing and Puffing
No matter what form the BBW takes, his focus is to huff and puff and blow your house down. The question is what have we done to Continue reading » Are You Ready for the Big Bad Wolf?
For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.
— Stuart Chase
Here at BouncebackCafe.com, Ellie and I focus on providing ideas, skills and techniques for helping you to live your best life. One of the things that I’ve found is that each person is only as open to trying some of these ideas as they are hopeful about their future.
Each and every day, we are bombarded by messages about ourselves, the world around us, the future, opportunities, problems and a million other things that we’re not even aware of. Without even thinking about it, we choose which messages to accept as true and which we reject as false. If you’ve been overwhelmed by negativity, it’s hard to try new ideas.
The Chicken or the Egg?
This raises an interesting question. What determines which messages Continue reading » What – Me Worry?
With confidence, you can reach truly amazing heights; without confidence, even the simplest accomplishments are beyond your grasp.
— Anonymous
As I sat down to think about what I should write today, I asked myself, “Self, what seems to be most lacking these days?” And into my head came “confidence.” If you don’t follow “the market” you may not be aware that there are certain statistics that are tracked weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly. And when the market runs – up or down – it is often the result of one of these statistics.
These days the market is obsessed with the strength of the consumer. 70% of the business that occurs in the United States is you and I buying products and services. When we decide that we’re going to stop spending and start saving or pay off our credit cards, the overall amount of money going into the economy shrinks. When you and I are no longer spending, Continue reading » Living with Confidence
Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.
— Arthur Somers
The other night I tossed and turned, got up, went back to bed, got a cup of tea, checked my email (sheezzz!), watched the weather station, drifted back to sleep and… awakened, again as worry after worry ricocheted against the edges of my messy mind. What a waste of good sleeping time! Not to mention brain power.
These days, I’ve plodded forward “doing what needs to be done” to set various affairs to right. And I’ve intentionally avoided some big ones. Why? Well, I suppose because I could, because I was pretty sure there would be no harm done in the delay, because I just wasn’t up to tackling them.
Then, the day before my sleepless night, I forayed into one of those important but not urgent tasks that I’d been avoiding. I’d figured out a few “baby steps” (as PattiAnn advised in a recent post) and felt I could do these little bits, no problem. Well, it turns out, almost no problem, because blithely and unwittingly, I stepped into a molehill. And stumbled in the night as fears burrowed up into my consciousness, some frivolous, some formidable, all stomping about my sleepy mind, waking me so I could worry-worry-worry.
And so I fretted about: Continue reading » Three Ways to Quiet Worries that Burrow Up in the Night
Well, the big trip is over. I have gone to visit my father and nothing is changing. Not that Dad hasn’t changed, he has. Just that not enough has changed in the underlying situation to allow us to make any decisions about the best way to proceed.
For as long as I’ve known him, Dad has had a temper. His response to unexpected circumstances was to rage. If you happened to be close by, you became the target. He was never physically violent that I am aware of, but then he is a little guy – under five feet, wirey and muscular but at a distinct disadvantage when it came to taking on most of the world.
Continue reading » Still Living With Uncertainty
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