So I was fired from one of my jobs on Friday. I had been at that place for almost 3 years and I had become very comfortable. Not to mention the fact that I had a great deal of benefits from working there. I took the situation and instead if wallowing in my own pity, I decided to make it an opportunity rather than a set back. I took advantage of the situation and ran with it. I ended up being extremely productive this weekend with my school work and with working on myself. I actually went for a hike by myself yesterday and today I woke up and did some Yoga. This past weekend I had a series of unfortunate happen to me. I took every single one at a slow and calm pace. Today I am emotionally drained, but it is not going to keep me from accomplishing my daily tasks. I noticed that I often have set backs that happen to me and sometimes they set me back and sometimes they don’t. I will not allow what has happened this past weekend to set me back. I am going to embrace all of the situations at hand with open arms. I am able to assess situations in my life today and do it appropriately. Them in a Today I make the choice to think before I act, although I have realized that I need to do more of it. I decided that I am going to start focusing on myself more and on my future. I have the rest of my life ahead of me, so I might as well get better at life as soon as possible.

This weekend I began a new vision board! For those of you who are thinking, What’s a Vision Board? Let me explain. A vision board is any type of display whose purpose is to allow your visions, dreams and goals to take on real concrete existence. It can be on a piece of printer paper, poster board or canvas and represented by a collection of articles and “things” that document your goals. The more you have to add, the easier it is to see your vision coming true!
I have done these boards in the past with great success. However, I have never done one with such great intent and effort in appreciating the finished product. This new board, my friends, is a marvelous masterpiece that is poster size and full of color and wonder. It reflects the color and wonder in my vision for my future of 2009 and beyond! I am so ecstatic to finish it and place it on my wall to provide motivation, inspiration and dreaming throughout the year. I encourage all of you to make your own Vision Board to start making your dreams a reality.

My recent car accident is probably going to be fought between my insurance company and the man who hit me. And it is really starting to affect me.
To recap, I wrecked my father’s driveway, I wrecked his client’s car, and I am going to need his help for this insurance claim. I was feeling pretty poorly about myself about all of this. It started with me feeling like an idiot for ruining the driveway, then I felt like a horrible driver, and that I don’t care or I am disrespectful of other people’s property. From there it morphed into feeling like I am a horrible son.
To get myself to stop thinking so negatively, I have to actively stop those thoughts and start looking at the reality of the situation instead of what I expect to happen or what I am afraid is going to happen. For example, my dad did not get mad about the driveway because he knew it was something that I had no clue would happen and did not expect. It was not because I was being careless or did not care what happened to his driveway. It was an honest mistake.
As far as the car accident, my father knows I am a safe driver because I have never been in an accident before. It was literally impossible for me to see the guy coming because he was coming from the wrong way and I had a big truck next to me that I could not see through. The fact that these bad things happened does not make me a bad person. In fact, they should give me a chance to reflect on how good a person I really am.
When my thinking gets out of control in a negative place, I do two things. First, I think of the very best case scenario that could possibly happen. Second, I think about what is the very worst thing that could happen. Next, I think of what is the exact middle possibility of the best/worst case scenario. This is usually what ends up happening, and that reality gives me a more realistic expectation of the situation.
Sometimes we can all let our brains spin out of control. Sometimes it is feeling bad about ourself, sometimes it is a work or school situation, and a lot of the time it is about a girl or boy situation. We can really drive ourselves nuts and even make a situation worse by doing this. I am so glad that I am sober today and have tools that I can use as well as good friends who are willing to listen to help me overcome these negative ways of thinking.