Sunday, October 14, 2012

How I started my Day

Here's some stuff that came up reviewing My Experiences this morning...
All or Nothing - regarding the party last night, I invited a people from different groups that my wife interacts with.  Because only people from one of those groups showed up, I had these brief thoughts of failure.  I attributed this to all or nothing thinking (if all groups not represented, then I failed) and countered this thought with my wife's comments that it was a good party and the fact that everyone there had a great time.
Jumping to Conclusions - I kept wondering if some people didn't show because I offended them in some way.  I would start feeling anxious at this thought and try to figure out what I did and how I could remedy it.  I really have no evidence of such an offense which is how I countered this thought.
Magnification - back to thinking about the people who didn't show up, I had a tendency to magnify the importance of those no-shows.  Because my wife had a great time, and got to spend time with some friends she hadn't seen in a while, the fact that some people didn't show really wasn't that big of a deal.
Should Statements - Ate too much, didn't have all the people I invited showing up.  I should have eaten less, I should have followed through better on the invitations.  Actually, one day of over eating is not bad, and perhaps I would have slept better had I not eaten so much, but so what?  We had a great time, the food was great, and the company was great.  A better follow up on the invites?  Maybe things would have been different, maybe they would have been worse.  The fact is we had a great time with who showed up.  Good enough.
So, this is how I started my day.  Battling some residual thoughts from last night.  Reviewing my experiences provides a somewhat structured way to address thoughts like these and mitigate them.

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