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Sunday, December 13, 2015

So How Did You Do?

Hey All - Kind of a warm day for December, isn't it?

Every year, as New Year's Eve approaches, we like to make a lot of promises to ourselves, but we often fail to follow through on them by the time MLK Day rolls around.  The main reason why this happens is that we think our transgressions of the prior year were minor, irrelevant, or tolerable.  We got so comfortable with them that we didn't seriously feel like changing them.

So how do we overcome this?  A good old fashioned performance review:

(1).  What mistakes did we make?
    (A).   Why did they happen?  Be honest!
    (B).   Did we learn from them?   If so, what did we learn?
    (C).   Is it possible to prevent them?   If so, what?

(2).   Did we disrespect someone?
    (A).   Why?   
          (i).    Would they have irreparably harmed themselves if we stayed silent?  Were they lost, blind, and oblivious to their own mistakes before we stepped in?  If so, please move along,
          (ii).   Were you angry?  In a bad mood?  Did  you let something get under your skin?  If so, how did that happen?
          (iii).   Were they alpholes?  If so, were you still Bold and Bulletproof?   Meaning, did you fire back at them only after they had tried to provoke you more than enough times?   And did they leave themselves wide open?
     (B).   What can we do to prevent reoccurrences of (i) and (ii)?  And not punish ourseives for (iii)?

(3).  Were we disrespected?
    (A).   Why?
         (i).    Did we instigate something?  See 2.A.1 and 2.   If so, was the retaliation justified?
         (ii).    Did we just show up somewhere?   See 2.A.3.  Did we respond as recommended by this very blog?
    (B).   Were we Bold and Bulletproof in the face of disrespect and bullying?  If not, why?

(4)   Who was in our lives?
    (A).   People who respected us?  And vice versa?   If not, why?
    (B).   Hangers-on?  Friends-of-friends?   People we had to tolerate because they "don't bother" someone else?   Were we able to repel their repulsiveness?  If not, why?

Yes, as you can see, I'm not the answer man this time around.  You are.  Use this checklist, which is by no means exhaustive, to evaluate your social interactions of 2015.  Feel free to expand the situations to school or work.  Take a good look at why you made the choices you did.  Detach from your review any and all negative emotional responses.  Remember your choices from 2015 only so you can make better choices in 2016.

I EXIST.  I MATTER.  I BELONG.  I DESERVE.


I AM BOLD.  I AM BULLETPROOF.   I AM BETA.

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