Feeling Like A Failure? - Part 1
I know that some of you do.
I see it in the memes and even some of the written posts. I even occasionally hear it audibly from some people. (If you have shared with me, don’t think that you are the only one)
With the way you are wired you may even naturally lean towards a pessimistic nature.
Maybe you have an unhealthy tendency to crawl into the “tent of self pity”.
Even with a more naturally optimistic nature, circumstance can pile up to finally seem to take precedence. Circumstance that leads you to saying either “my life stinks” or “I can’t do anything right”.
While I am naturally more wired towards optimism, I am not totally immune to unhealthy introspection or incorrect assumptions. Here are three things to remember when you have chosen to live in the unhealthy emotions tent.
It is actually important to be reminded that we are not all powerful and that sometimes our ideas don’t work out the way we have planned. Sometimes we need to remember that we are NOT God and that it is a GOOD thing to sense our dependence on Him. It is frightening to think of being in such a place to forget His supremacy in our lives.
The tent of self pity will never help anyone, least of all yourself. Get out. You have to choose to do so. Dwelling on the circumstance as being “stinky life” or “can’t do this” will only keep you right there and that DOES stink.
And what is the refocus? The refocus is NOT “Well, at least my life is better that those people who have nothing to eat” or “It is better than those people suffering in Syria”. It also is not “I am special.” While these things actually may be true, those thoughts are not helpful to grasp the truth. The refocus is, “What can I learn from this, and where do I go now?” most appropriately posited in a prayer. You may not even have an answer yet, but the question will get you looking forward instead of dwelling in or on the past.
If you make a practice of that last question, I can’t guarantee that you won’t EVER end up discouraged, but I can guarantee that the habit of doing so will probably change, and even if you do crawl into that tent of self pity you will get out of that mindset much sooner because you ARE in a new habit of thinking. Stay tuned for practical examples of this very thing in a “part 2” post.
