Mine has been a life filled with lessons. What life isn’t? Some days I am teachable and others I am the class rogue… sitting in the back of the room either doing something that distracts me from the basic lesson or sleeping without a thought to the advances that could be made.

Granted this is what humans do…

But long ago (in 2000 as I was gearing up to hit 10 years in sobriety) I wrote a book called “Solution: Character Changing and Maintenance (in the School of Experience.”) The months I spent writing that book taught me more about who I was… and who I wanted to be, than all the education I had sat down for or trudged my way through prior to the experience. It was amazing and therapeutic. It was eye-opening and life-affirming. It was positive and beautiful. ALL things that I believe I, and so many others, could use a dose of in this day and age. I need to be in the solution and not in the problem where I have firmly placed myself of late without having realized the burgeoning behavioral pattern.

This past week was one filled with stress and questions. Without even paying attention to who I was being and how I was reacting to the world around me (specifically my job) I was building habits of pure emotion and forgetting completely to allow the world to unfold around me without fighting it from every angle and, for the most part, losing.

One thing I am absolutely sure of is that everything happens for a reason. Right now in my world I am fortunate to be gainfully employed, healthy (unless I continue the stressful ways) and surrounded by people who love me. Where is the problem?

The problem, I might have to admit, is that I work too much. My job has become all-consuming. There is more to do and there are less people to do it. I expect this is not unusual in any mode of work in our country right now. The economy suffers, the companies react (most if not all because they have to) and budgets and staffs are cut. Now… were there a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other I would be looking towards the angel at this time. Who would you rather be? The worker who has more to do… or the worker out of a job?

Enough said.

So even though there is a problem to be evaluated.. and I have allowed it to change some behavior and reaction, causing stress and emotion to bleed from my pores…. I expect that there is a different way to look at this and a solution to be found.

For one thing EVERY reaction that I have is created. It is a habit that I’ve developed. If a habit can be created it can be uncreated. If a problem is evident or presented one does not have to react to it. The reaction isn’t going to solve the problem. A moment of thought and then a clear cut methodology to work through whatever it is that is causing the problem is the path to a solution… and even though some are harder to achieve than others… there IS always a solution.

The week ahead is a stage to bring my best character, myself, back out to the forefront of my life. It is going to be hard, filled with fire-drills and an overabundance of activity… but it is not insurmountable. I look forward to this as the challenges I have looked forward to in the past. I will accomplish it as I would any other goal.

And in any spare moment… perhaps it would be best that I sat down and began to read the book I wrote some 8 to 9 years ago. It was a grand lesson if I do not say so myself.

Posted: 12|7|08 at 11:28 pm. Filed under: What If I Told you....

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