Your thoughts, positive or negative, trigger certain emotions.  Sometimes you may not understand why you're experiencing a certain feeling -- be it rage, regret, or optimism -- until you do a little mental gymnastics. Ask yourself this question: What specific thoughts crossed my mind to spark these feelings? Maybe it was thinking about your boss dropping a project on you at the last minute. Perhaps a commercial ran that you remembered first aired five years ago while you were having a terrible fight with your ex-spouse about his drinking habit, which ultimately derailed the marriage. Maybe your friend's putting in a good word at work for the new sales manager position you've been eying elevated your mood. Sometimes the most seemingly inconsequential event can stir up a range of emotions. I, for example, often find myself feeling a bit glum on cloudy days. Yet, you can probably relate to feeling rather ecstatic at the thought of Friday being just a few hours away.  Whether i...

I went to the doctor's office today for a follow-up. While there, I couldn't help but notice how chaotic the environment was. All three ladies at reception seemed to be tending to three things at once, leaving me to wonder when I was finally going to be attended. We try to adjust our working style and personality  to fit the nature and pressures of our job, sometimes with no success. Some of us work in fast-paced environments where having to meet multiple deadlines within a short time frame is par for the course. Others might work in, say, a government agency where the tempo is much slower, people have the breathing room to tackle one thing at a time, and projects might take weeks if not months to be finalized. I find myself in the latter camp. While my job tends to get boring sometimes because of endless red tape slowing things to a crawl, I prefer this to a position where I feel overwhelmed -- with too much work but too little of me to go around. I've been in th...

Sometimes we question what the purpose of our lives really is. We get stuck in ruts, or, even worse, we hit rough patches where nothing seems to go right and ask ourselves, "Is there more to life than this?" What we have to remember is that storms eventually pass. We need to stay focused on the things that really matter to us life. Those things obviously vary from person to person, but we all strive toward achieving goals that make life purposeful. My goals in life include: Loving my wife and family and being there for them as much as I can Helping the less fortunate Helping animals, about which I am passionate Learning as much as I can, especially about the subjects that interest me the most (psychology and history) Living below my means Becoming as good a writer as I can possibly be, and writing a book someday Your goals may be to strike it rich, support the environment, and help find a cure for a certain disease. That's the beauty of life. We all hav...