Monday, August 23, 2010

The Roses Are Not All Rosey

Part 2 of Is Your Outlook A Habit:

I pointed out in the last post about how Dave seems to be "happy" when he is feeling life's pain. That wasn't to bash Dave, it was to merely point out what I have been observing as we have begun tackling some of our personal issues. The other point I wanted to make about the habit of the way we see things is that the "Bright Side" is not always the best outlook. There are times when I immediately go to what is good in a situation and miss what I really need to see.

I could be called gullible or naive' in that I will automatically gravitate to what is good or how good can come from the bad when in fact, it might be better to recognize that the situation or person I am dealing with sucks! It's bad and we need to address that it's bad. For me that means I made a poor choice or led us into the bad situation. I don't like that feeling...much the same way I suspect Dave doesn't like the feeling of "happy-happy, joy-joy" that he sees me expressing so often. It's not that he doesn't want to be happy, I believe he feels it can't be real when it's as frequent as it is with me. It can and it is, but there may be times when it's not as certain as it could be.

So here is where we are...he's asking himself if he gets off on the pain while I'm pondering if I'm masking my inability to deal with the negative feelings by smiling and looking at the bright side. What do you think, are these habits that we can break or do you think there's more to it? I'll let you know what we discover as we make our way through this journey.

2 comments:

Big Mike said...

That is a very hard question. And one I would that I would bet most people would not think of. I think that the happy medium that is created by the two of you is the best way to tackle the world.
Keep up the good work.

Dave Partak said...

Thank you Mike! It's been really good for us to examine each other and then ourselves. Some serious growth going on in the Partak household!