Today I was reminded how if you expect others to be a certain way so you can feel good, it won’t be long before your world is messed up. I encountered someone…
Category: Personal Growth
“What’s in it for Me?”
Something occurred to me this morning as I was writing at the cafe.* I was thinking about relationships. I’m using “relationships” broadly to mean relations with anyone… it could be family, friends,…
Don’t Expect to Make Lemonade Out of Vinegar
They say that when life gives you lemons… well, we all know what to do. This morning while writing at the cafe, I was struck by a funny variation on this: “Don’t…
Already a Great Year for Introspection
I admit it. The first five months of 2024 seemed, um, challenging. To be sure, everything is actually going fine. Maybe it’s growing pains. For whatever reason, it wasn’t always easy to…
Give Them a Break
Previously I wrote about being at the cafe with my friend. Someone was talking loudly next to us. My initial reaction was to be annoyed at the distraction, but then I remembered…
The Ideal Weekend for Highly-Sensitive Me?
I often want downtime. In fact, I have consciously structured my day to maximize time for replenishment, contemplation, and recreation.* Do I need more time to myself than the average person? I…
When Someone Else Isn’t Being Nice
In the past couple of days I got a lesson in not taking things personally.* Yesterday someone I know surprised me by being very upset and blaming me for something. It took…
The Game of Achievement
Our society is achievement focused. As a result, so are we. We focus on ways we can truthfully announce that we are enough to hang with the rest, that we are indeed…
Musing on “Separating Tasks”
One of my big takeaways from “The Courage to Be Disliked” is the idea of “separating tasks.” I mentioned it a few posts ago. Basically, it is the idea of knowing what…
No One Said It Wasn’t an Effort
“The Courage to Be Disliked,”* an extended Socratic discussion involving a youth and a philosopher, makes frequent uses of analogies as the Philosopher make his compelling points. One such analogy is that…