Decisions

Living In Fear

Backstory

During the pandemic cloud, we were constantly required to make decisions. Older folks in particular knew that exposure could be fatal. There was reason to be scared. How did they cope?

Living In Fear

Explaining how he creates fear in his movie audiences, Alfred Hitchcock once said, “There is no terror in the bang, only the anticipation of it.” Even more so in real life, when there is a threat to your health and wellbeing.

The worst time is when you’re aware that something is wrong but you don’t know what. That time can go on for days, weeks, even months. It’s crushing. Fear stops everyone in their tracks. Whether it’s a new venture, a new task, or a new diagnosis, overcoming the fear can take you halfway to success.

With a medical alert, we tend to dash to the Internet for quick knowledge. You can find words that haunt and dire predictions and absolutely none may be applicable to your situation.

Also, when you’re enveloped in fear, you’re not listening well to the actual information from tests, examinations and medical personnel. If you don’t listen well, you can’t make the best decisions. And you will certainly confuse those around you who want to offer support.

So, the first step in any medical emergency – lose the fear. If it’s going to be bad, being fearful is not going to make it less bad. And if it’s going to be okay, worrying about it is time and effort wasted.

Easy? Not at all. But so necessary to get past the fear to a place where you can listen well, analyze reasonably, and make good decisions.

P.S.

An exercise to follow before beginning the process of the system of coping – Stop, Breathe, Consider, Verify, Act.

[Show #543]

Great Love

Backstory

I can remember the day I turned to God, begging Him to give me a sign about which way I should go. I was facing a big decision with seriously conflicting pros and cons. I heard a voice in my heart reassuring me and promising, “When it’s right, you will know.” And I did.

Click to listen or follow below to read.

Great Love – #164

Its been said that great love and great achievement both require a great risk. Certainly true. When you love greatly, you are most vulnerable. Your heart is open to joy and also heart break. Who knows which it will be? But as someone once dear to me said, “I would not have wanted to miss the dance.” Well, that too requires opening yourself to scrutiny.

Consider what the candidates went through in the recent election campaigns. How many of us would be willing to put our entire life’s history on the line for interpretation by anyone who wants to voice an opinion. It takes courage and determination, to say nothing of the risk that it may be, all for naught if you’re not chosen.

Do you have the courage to take great risks? The payoff could be great love or great achievement.

P.S.

When it turns out you made the right decision, be sure to appreciate the outcome. Don’t ever take it for granted. Treasure it each day and give thanks for the gift of wisdom that guided your decision. And if it does not work out, have the courage to make a change again. This time too, the outcome could be great love or great achievement.

[Show #164]

World Upside Down

Backstory – World Upside Down

The last few months of 2016 in our house were spent in a stupor of political rhetoric, promises, accusations and commentary. No different from homes throughout America. But it was more than listening to the candidates and making your best guess to separate fact from fiction. Views and values were so opposite one another that it took really delving into each of them to try to sort things out. That was a lot of work!

Just when you came to a conclusion on an issue, something new would pop up that seemed to shoot down your well-developed logic, or lay waste to a new truth you thought you could hang onto.

I wanted to write about it; but not in favor of one candidate or the other. I wanted to voice the questions echoing in my heart. I wanted to stop the fear. No matter which way the election went, I could feel fear.

Looking back in my own life made it clear that this is not the first time that things seemed confusing to the average citizen. I was not yet a teenager when I cheered my first presidential candidate and proclaimed, “I like Ike.” Extremely uninformed of the issues, I was delighted to feel part of this important process. I remember how heated things got.

And reading the history of our country, I see that early campaigning was no less kind or gentle. Candidates went for the jugular!

With all this in mind, I took to writing this episode entitled, “Upside Down.”

Consider This Show – World Upside Down

Click to listen or follow below to read.

Things are so different these days. Sometimes it feels like the world is upside down. Right is wrong and wrong is right and it’s all so confusing.

Our Communication is instant and uncensored, with opinions developed often on inaccurate or inadequate information. No time to bother finding out the truth. And the very concept of truth is spun so completely that the truth is illusive, if not invisible.

Fear is prevalent daily – especially for parents.

Did our parents feel the same way? Were they as terrified as war raged in one part of the world or another and seemed to get closer and closer? Was there so much danger in the world then?

Or is it just that we didn’t have the capacity to hear instantly about every crime in every corner of every town.

Values are changing at break-neck speed. Do we go along with the new trends? Oppose them? Just sit around and shake our heads?

Are we caught up in pining for the good ole days? Or have we fantasized those days into something they were not?

So many questions; so few answers. Yet the decisions we make daily based on the facts we perceive create the quality of life that we enjoy or suffer in the future.

So much to consider. Such high stakes. God help us!

[Show #615]

Decisions You Make

Today, you will have decisions to make: whether to get up now or sleep another hour. . . what to have for breakfast. . . what to wear. . . whether to take that phone call as you’re ready to walk out the door or not.

Each of those decisions seem inconsequential. You may make them by rote without even really thinking about them. But the chain of those decisions becomes your life.

How well you live that life depends on the decisions you make. Some people are very good at making decisions, and their life thrives. Others – not so much.

That’s when we hear the excuses about what went wrong: it was the economy. . . a bad start in life. . . not enough education. . . parents who did not care.

But the truth is . . . every one of us has the right – and obligation – to make good decisions to keep our lives running in the right direction. YOU have control, regardless of the economy or your schooling or your parents.

Making the right decision is not always easy. You may not have immediate gratification. It may take years to get where you want to be. You may have detours or false starts that need do-overs.

But It’s never too late to start making the right decisions. Something to think about.

[Show #451]