Since then, chronic pain has greatly impacted my life; the things I am able to do, the things I can no longer do, the profession I had hoped to be involved in, the one I am currently pursuing, my moods and relationships. I have always viewed myself as a person with a positive, persevering personality. I have tried to maintain this, but I must admit at times it has certainly been a struggle. After the lady drove through the stop sign, that December afternoon and our vehicles collided, I thought I would soon be back to normal. Imagine my dismay, when several months later, I was still in much pain.
All of the struggles and culture shock played an emotional roll that will always be remembered by me or anyone who has experienced it. When I moved to these countries I took those emotions with me. It is easy to believe that the move, the new beginning will also take away our existing emotional problems, however this is not the case. The pressure of my move enhanced my emotional problem, I felt overwhelmed with this new situation. In all of these countries I moved to I had to leave all my material objects as well as my friends and some of my family.
In order for me to find resolve in my pity and my life which had become depressing and stressful, I had to learn everything I could about the changes that were negatively impacting my life. The more I knew about them, the better I thought I would be able to deal with them. I started asking questions such as: What’s the worse thing that can happen? What do I stand to lose because of this change? How is this change affecting me now?
Later on down the road, you start thinking about what you said and how you said it, and realize that you made a mistake. Sometimes in the moment it does not seem to sound mean, but later on you realize you had said some hurtful things. Yes, most of the time you can say, “Well, I was mad when I said that so I didn’t really mean it.” But most of the time, if your mad or not, you said, so that is what you were thinking. Just recently, my best friend and I got into a huge fight. There were somethings that were said that should not have been, but you don’t realize it until after it has been said.
That is not an easy thing to especially if you have a girlfriend, wife, or kids. That is where the determination comes in as a big part. Many have given their lives for our country and they have done it with no hesitation. I really think they don’t get the credit they deserve once they come back from seas or once they are retired. They do get a bunch of respect though.
Most of the time, errors committed by us are so frequent that one doesn’t even recognize them. After reading the book, I realized most of these are the errors we make, not just in our daily conversations but also in our works. These errors very often mislead us from the truth and allow emotions to take over logic. The error I chose from chapter 10 is post hoc fallacy. Post hoc fallacy basically works on after this therefore because of this phenomenon.
So far in my career I have made a few mistakes but making mistakes are a part of life, and I believe there is always a chance to learn from those mistakes. One way to ensure that the same mistakes aren’t made could be to list the choices I have made and the outcomes that they’ve had. Once that is complete I will make another list that shows what could have been done differently and what a possible outcome could have been. This will be my own personal way of ensuring every decision I make is an Honorable decision. I also realized that when you aren’t 100 percent honest about your own personal problems you aren’t being honorable.
It is more than just asking “how did that go”. I must accept receiving negative feedback as an opportunity to learn with the understanding that I have an issue with criticism. The worst part is that I could probably tell everyone my own faults before they even tell me. I tend to let my pride and the fact that I have always been successful in the past blind me into thinking that I know better than the people whose lives are entrusted with me. I strive to better understand that I have a direct impact on the people that work under me.
It;s usually everybody of everyday that I see this happening. So I would say in just about all situations of life I see this problem in people. I believe there are serious consequences to this kind of behavior on many levels. And I believe the consequences can be a ruined friendship, a lost job due to bad insensitive listening, just to name a few. A good listening strategy I or anyone can use to battle this problem more could be pseudo listening and some good advice would be to learn and stop monopolizing so much!
noticed that I did miss tying it into some of the trials and tribulations in the story, and now as I read over this I feel if like my experience between father and son is actually a lot like Odysseus and Telemachus. At a young age, my father left home and I learned to become a man of the household without him physically being present. The struggle of growing up with that weight on my shoulders I think definitely compares to that of Tele. in the Odyssey. My fathers departure was a major turning point in my life, it changed a lot of things for me and was very emotional.