![]() ![]() I live today with a renewed optimism and faith, believing and striving towards a brighter tomorrow. ![]() It is better to help than to point fingers it is better to encourage than to find fault. I have learned that humility is an inward action manifested outwardly for the benefit of others. My mother has taught me that humility in servitude of others, can be a soothing balm to a hurting heart. ![]() It is this powerful human emotion which allows me to see in the darkest hour. Her unwavering faith in God, her unbroken resilience and fighting spirit to see me prison-free, strengthens my heart. What keeps me motivated with optimism is the genuine love from my mother, Diana. At times, it seems impossible to overcome these emotional barriers. The longer you spend in prison, the less hopeful and optimistic you become. I have spent over 25 years in prison, more than half my life. Oh, I can get as negative and as angry as the next person, but I try not to stay there long. I try to be observant of God's workings in my life and to be aware of His many blessing. It's little things that cause that inward smile, like the cloud that swirls up from cream being poured into a hot cup of coffee. it makes my day." I guess I was smiling without even realizing it and had no idea how simple smiles can affect other people for the better. One of the cashiers (whom I didn't know from Eve) let out a loud "Welcome back!" and added, "I love how every time you come in our store, you're smiling. But several years ago, I walked into a hardware store that I hadn't been to in a long time. I feel like I'm in a chronic state of despair over the various bad situations all over the planet, with my personal struggles on top of them. Haven't you ever glanced across a room, caught someone's eye and shared a smile with a total stranger over a funny incident? It's understanding the human condition. It connects us to our loved ones but even brings us closer to strangers. Using trite affirmations with no grounding in reality only causes more frustration and cripples your performance.I don't think I could live in this world without humor. The new information needs to be valid and true. However, your optimism needs to be informed. ![]() Informed Optimism (with editing).Īfter incorporating new, supportive information into your narrative, you're set on a positive and motivated trajectory. Your unedited story will lead you to crash and burn. If you fail to edit your narrative and reinterpret the negative information, no amount of motivation, willpower, or self-discipline will pull you through the "crises of meaning." A negative script dictating your life will only lead to failure and perpetual struggle. Related: Turning Crisis Into Opportunity: 5 Ways to Deal With Hardship 4. They experienced challenges in the "informed pessimism" stage and they internalized that negative information into their own script and storyline. It's the stage where Wilson implemented the intervention for the students. This stage is crucial for editing your personal narrative. I've adapted MIT lecturer Cameron Herold's model of the "transition curve," featured by Tim Ferriss, to explain the most crucial stages for editing your story: To effectively edit your story, you need to understand the five stages every personal narrative progresses through. In the control group that received no information, 25 percent of students dropped out by the end of their sophomore year, compared with 5 percent in the intervention group. The students in the intervention group significantly improved in their GPA over the next year, and were less likely to drop out. The goal was to prompt the students to edit their narratives to reinterpret their negative, self-defeating inner-dialogue. They also watched videos of upper-class students reinforcing this message. They were split into two groups the intervention group was informed that it's common for students to struggle in their freshmen year but improve as they adjust to college life. A study by Timothy Wilson, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, took a group of college freshmen who struggled academically and felt intellectually inadequate. ![]()
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