Life Skills Blog

January 20th, 2009 | by Lynn | Tags: acceptance, BabyBoomer, Family, Generations and Age Groups, Great Depression, Home, Mental Health, people, positive, self-esteem, Self-help 

A Fork in the Road

“I discovered I always have choices and sometimes it’s only a choice of attitude.” unknown author

Choices

Your life is all about choice.  Choices define which way you will develop and grow…

For myself, I remember when I learned to read.

At that time, we learned in school mostly, not so much at home. My parents were from the Depression Era and probably didn’t consider that everyday subtleties like reading and writing skills can be furthered along at home before Preschool, Kindergarten and 1st Grade. They had provided for us a much better life than they had growing up, and that is not to be discredited at all by the Baby Boomers generation.

But, back to my story… here my family (Mom, Dad and us girls) were in a restaurant and I was so excited that the waitress had given an adult menu to me and my sis. As I remember looking through it, I knew there were a lot of words I didn’t know, but there were some that I DID know. My Mom then quietly remarked that since I can’t read yet, she thinks I should order a Corn Dog with Applesauce and a glass of milk. Well, I was one never to contradict my Mom (although my mind was fighting with her!). It wasn’t what she told me to order that made me frustrated. It was the fact that I COULD read, just not a lot of words, yet. I remember telling her (IN MY mind…) “Yes I can and I am gonna show you!”

I could choose to give up and listen to the seeds being planted that I didn’t know how to read OR I could prove to Mom and the whole world that I will read very well! The key was to choose to grow and learn.

The same went when I learned to ride a bike, tie my shoes, learning to drive AND learning to cook. It was always my choice to prove Mom wrong. Did she realize this? No! It would have crushed her to think she was hurting my self esteem. I just took it on as a personal challenge for myself.

I used defiance (a negative feeling) and turned it around to make it a positive action.  Was I a defiant child?  No, not at all.  The issue just struck a certain chord with me and I couldn’t let it go.

Today, I want you to look into your Minds EYE and Journal about critical, negative feelings that were turned into positive action.  If you can’t think of any off the top of your head, that’s ok!  Think of a situation where you can possibly turn something into a positive action– for you or for someone else.  Make a clear purpose.  Make a difference.

One of the keys to healthy relationships in life is to learn from our past, adjust our shortcomings or mistakes, accept others for theirs and resolve the barriers.

Trust yourself, I know you can do this!  Lynn