Rethink Your Story

Writing about yourself can help you make desired changes.  Seems we develop personal narratives that, when revisited, can redirect our paths.  Studies show that expressive writing can cause us to reconsider self-defeating beliefs and to confront what may be false excuses for not achieving our goals.  These "writing interventions" are another testimony to the 'power of the pen.'  So take out your red pen and edit your story!  (Source:  "Writing Your Way to Happiness" by Tara Parker-Pope, the Well section of the NYT, 1/20/15)

Zenith Years - My Ideas

Choose for Yourself

Ruth Chang offers a challenge as we start the New Year -- rather than resolving to be 'better' selves (thinner, more gracious, etc.) -- ponder the possibility of making a choice to become someone different.

In her NYT article, "Resolving to Create a New You" (1/4/15) this professor of philosophy asks us to consider choosing to become the sort of person we want to be.  Not someone who makes choices others would value, but rather someone who is the author of her own life.   

When our decisions reflect our own values, there are no mistakes.

Short-changed Jobs

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. is in short supply, when jobs have unpredictable hours, no status, low pay and no security.  H.R. 101 theory says workers thrive when:   They are treated as adults... have mutual trust with management ... and feel respected. 

Barbara Ehrenriech chronicled the degrading experiences of women working in service jobs, in her book, Nickled & Dimed:  On (Not) Getting By in America.  She went 'undercover' to produce her journalistic findings on the lack of empathy for the working poor.

A new book, Hand to Mouth - Living in Bootstrap America, written by Linda Tirado, is featured in the NYT Book Review.  Sounds like a similar story, but by a bonafide member of the working poor.  She is quoted as saying the lack of feeling valued at work made her 'give up caring' about her job.  No doubt, making her performance a validation of management's world view.

We have a family member who is underemployed in order to pursue a non-traditional path.  These stories ring true. 

Borrow Trouble

Positive thinking will only get us so far.  Research says identifying potential barriers, after imagining a successful outcome, is a better bet.  Gabriele Oettingen, in a Gray Matter NYT column, reports that people get energized by thinking about how they will deal with obstacles that might crop up.  (10/27/14)

A professor and author, Gabriele calls the technique "mental contrasting.'' She says this approach spurs us on to make our wishes come true.  Her book is Rethinking Positive Thinking:  Inside the New Science of Motivation.