Our job gives most of us a clear role.... Although we may feel relatively lost at home, we know who we are and what to do at work. —Pierre Mornell
Most people have become well adapted to the workaday world. Even if our jobs seem like drudgery, they provide us with a place and a routine, which define us. Many of us have welcomed the end of a weekend or a vacation because we could go back to our jobs and definite roles. This situation has many drawbacks. For one thing, if we are out of work, we may feel adrift. Furthermore, if we have defined ourselves only as breadwinners, we have probably missed the benefits of closeness in our families. Some of us have even said, "I feel like I'm nothing but a meal ticket."
A good job does have value, but we can also grow by giving more of ourselves in our less clear roles at home. It is healing to just "hang around" with our families and friends and to simply let relationships develop. The personal, familiar relationships that don't depend on jobs and roles let us be comfortably human.
I am thankful for the humanizing effect of my relationships at home.
From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men©
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Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Schoolchildren perform according to the expectations their teachers have of them. Likewise, what we women achieve depends greatly on what we believe about ourselves, and too many of us have too little belief in ourselves. Perhaps we grew up in a negative household or had a non-supportive marriage. But we contributed, too, in our negative self-assessment. The good news is that it no longer needs to control us.
It's true, we can't control other people in our lives. And we can't absolutely control the outcome of any particular situation. But we can control our own attitudes. Interestingly, when we've begun tagging ourselves competent and capable, instead of inadequate, we find that other people and other situations become more to our liking, too.
Action for the Day: I will be fair with myself. I can do what I need to do wherever I am today. Only I can hold myself down.
Today I am doing things that I never dreamed possible.
More importantly, it is the peace and serenity I feel inside
that keeps me coming back.
I have been through hard times in and out of sobriety,
but before AA it didn't matter how good things got --
I always had a feeling that something was wrong.
Since AA, it doesn't matter how hard things get --
I always have a feeling that everything is going to be all right.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 381
Thought to Ponder . . .
Serenity isn't freedom from the storm; it is peace within the storm.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O P E = Hang On! Peace Exists.
Daily Motivation
You make a difference
What you do makes a difference. It may not seem like much, but it is.
What you do has an influence that goes far beyond you. What you do is an important part of the fabric of life.
The world around you is not only your home. It is your responsibility.
The way you see the world plays an important part in what the world becomes. Your vision for the future helps to create the future.
Live with hope, with joy, with love, and you add hope, joy, and love to the world. Live with honesty and integrity, and you give the power of truth to all of life.
Day in and day out, what you do truly matters, more than you can ever know. Live each moment as though what you do changes the world, because it surely does.
— Ralph Marston
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