Helping Yourself : A Simple Guide 4

 

Annabel Shaw

In part three of this mini guide to helping yourself I looked at the importance of thinking about what you would be doing with your new, better life once your current difficulties were overcome. I also looked at the importance of  being open to change. Today I want to talk a little about the role you might be playing in maintaining the problems you have in your current life.

What Role Do You Play In Your Difficult Life? This is no easy question and one that asks you to be scrupulously honest with yourself. Is there any chance that you could perhaps be making things worse for yourself ? Is there any chance that you are actually maintaining the difficult situation by refusing to acknowledge your own part in it  ?

Perhaps the hardest part of any resolution of life’s problems is taking responsibility for our own actions, accepting that perhaps, just perhaps, we might in fact be a big part of the problem. One way of gauging the part you are playing is to imagine your current life as a script – a book or a film. What other actions could you have taken to avoid the situation that now troubles you? In the light of that, can you think of anything that you could do now to make things better in the future ?

In Short: Is it always someone else’s fault?

I did say that I’d cover two topics a session but I think, given the significance of today’s task, that one is more than enough to be going on with.

There are some exercises in A Simpler Life  – our audio book – which can help you reconnect with your authentic self and your personal values, which in turn may offer some insight into your own role in where youstand today. A Simpler Life is now No.16 in iTunes’ self development audiobooks. If you download a copy, please leave us a comment here to give us your feedback