A few blog entries ago, I mentioned a process that I 'invented' ... OK, stole, that I called Resolution.
I
found my mind returning to the same thoughts over and over, rehashing
decisions I had made or actions that I had taken, none of which were to
my satisfaction. Did you ever get yourself into one of those spirals?
You spend a lot of time debating decisions that were already long over
with and couldn't be undone anyway.
Over the course of time, it
dawned on me that I was spending a lot of time trying to come to terms
with why I did this or that. This was time I could have spent on
something constructive or at least whistling a happy tune. So I decided
to do something about it.
In other words, I didn't have time for this crap.
This
was maybe fifteen years ago and the fact that my father had died a few
years before had nothing to do with all this angst. Like, I'm SO sure.
But whatever the origin, I did what I always do, I studied the matter.
Even all those years ago, you wouldn't believe all the self-help books
out there with a sure-fire program to solve everything. So I helped
myself to those aspects of a variety of programs that appealed to me or
suited my purpose and ignored the rest.
Oddly,
there was no self-flagellation or tough love among the recipe of rules I
put together. That wasn't the point, I just wanted to be done with this
stuff and not have it popping into what's left of my mind.
I
can't really go into all the specific devices here, for all I know some
of what I stole was copyrighted but I can summarize it for you in the
name I selected for the program: Resolution.
I
had to resolve the issues to the point where I no longer thought about
them. Just to make you feel better, there was no murder or mayhem
involved, it was job decisions, personal relationships, perceived
insults, you know, childish junk like that. Boy, I can hear people
signing off all the way from here.
So, I started by writing them all down.
That's
a throwaway line that really translates into a great deal of work over a
long period of time. I had to learn to recognize which issues were the
ones contaminating my thoughts. Some were common and others rare. Some,
many actually, were 'resolved' simply by writing them all out and
staring at them. It was almost as if the act of writing them down had
dumped them from the recirculating hash that masquerades as my thoughts.
Catharsis, I suppose.
Others required actions. I learned by
analyzing the patterns of what I had written that I actually wanted to
be liked. How stupid is that? You may have noticed that I put that
sentence in the past tense. People are either going to like you or not
and it's almost invariably because of a reason of their own, not some
action that you took or words that you said.
In Hamlet,
Polonius (that's him lying dead at Hamlet's feet) said, "...to thine
own self be true..." Well, he was right, you know. If you mess around
with your decisions because you're concerned about what others may think
of you, then you'll find yourself trying to figure it all out years
later. They're your decisions and it's your life. What others may or may not think is the business of politicians, it has no place in real life.
Regardless
of which decision you make, about the same number of people (not the
same people necessarily) will 'like' you as did before. And as I said,
likely for their own reasons. So please yourself. The only person you
have to justify yourself to is YOU.
The
problem with being so slow to 'resolve' my issues is that some of the
people I wanted to speak to had disappeared from my life or had died.
There are many things I would like to say to my mother and father for
example. But that ain't gonna happen.
It's
remarkable how much time I got back by means of this program. After I
had spoken to those I could and fixed or attempted to fix those things I
could, suddenly I had brain cycles at my disposal that were not
available previously. Heaven knows there are few enough of those as it
is. Plus, there is the added attraction of knowing what to look for and
avoiding them. This was clearly another of those opportunities for
testing that I've spoken of before. The release of pressure allows a
machine, like the human mind, to operate at a more optimum speed with
more optimum efficiency.
Remember the title of this blog? Past is Prologue. Put the past in it's proper place, for in our lives it is only the prologue. The good stuff is still ahead of us.
I think we've both come to the same conclusion Rich! Here is a poem that I printed out many years ago that I refer to often..........and "pelf" is correct!
When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.
For it isn’t your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.
He’s the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he’s with you clear up to the end,
And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.
You may be like Jack Horner and “chisel” a plum,
And think you’re a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.
You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you’ve cheated the guy in the glass.
March 30, 2009 at 12:03 AM
what did you do with them after you wrote them down? throw them out, burn them, bury them, what????
March 30, 2009 at 3:33 PM
They went into the shredder on the lobby level of Corp. II.
March 30, 2009 at 10:55 PM
We all are probably guilty, in varying degrees, of rehashing things from long ago that cannot be changed. It is wasted emotion and can do no good.
April 1, 2009 at 1:40 PM