The best and quickest way I know of to raise your self-esteem…. is to learn something new. Learning almost anything will make you feel instantly smarter. Pick up a magazine, read an article and you will instantly feel better informed!
The best and quickest way I know of to increase your sense of self-worth… is to challenge yourself to accomplish something. While there are always new challenges available, sometimes its best to resume former activities just to show yourself that you can still do it! Some people choose to return to school, some resume athletics, others relearn how to play musical instruments.
The point is that staying active and challenged, keeps us interested in life. While lack of interest is a sign that we are depressed. It is all too easy to become depressed and begin to age prematurely. To stave off this blight, I recommend that we challenge ourselves to stay involved with life. With another summer upon us, this is the perfect time to re-examine our way of staying alive. Here are a few more thoughts on the matter.
Summer is a great time to re-examine your life map. The months of summer are much like crossroads and intersections between busy years. Here we have the opportunity to consider the path that we are on. During the year, we have made many decisions and many decisions have been made for us. With all that has happened, decide whether you are still pursuing your goals, or whether you have been blown off course.
Take an important photograph. Pictures are miraculous ways of preserving memories; they capture our accomplishments, our reunions and our personal discoveries on the planet. From a historical perspective, pictures help us to preserve the past. From a future perspective, however, pictures that we imagine can help us identify our next goals. Take a few minutes to imagine a photograph depicting an important moment in your life, which has not happened yet! Then, think of the necessary steps it would take to make that photograph happen.
Focus on just one goal at a time. When we think about making changes in our lives, it is easy for our thoughts to get out of hand. Sometimes we can overcomplicate our plans and overwhelm ourselves before we even start. Other times, we may oversimplify and thereby fail to plan adequately for the future. Take time to focus on that single photograph. As Kevin Costner, who portrays a baseball pitcher in For the Love of the Game says, “Clear the Zone”.
Continue to Challenge yourself. In two months, you will either be closer or further away from your goal. In two months, the summer will end and work days will once again grow longer. In two months, the frantic pace of life will resume. At the end of the summer, how close will you have come to making that imagined photograph a reality?
When I think of all the summers I have experienced, I am struck by the ever-renewing cycle of life; how it changes and how it stays the same. As a child, time seemed to move too slowly. It always took forever for summer to get here, but then summer was like an oasis of long days and long months between school years. As a young adult, the pace of life seemed to speed up. Summer months became shorter but still they formed a distinct bridge between May and September. Now, as a seasoned adult, the summer months whirl by so quickly through the years, I feel like I have to slow down in order not to miss them. So….how are you going to make this summer special?
©Copyright, 2002, Jane R. Rosen-Grandon. All rights reserved.
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