Posts by Carl Greer
Regaining Your Confidence
Do you lose confidence after a loss or failure? If it’s a particularly big loss or failure, or part of a series, you may find it next to impossible to have faith in yourself afterward. Lost confidence can affect you for years and become embedded in your story as a recurring theme that seems to…
Read MoreMy Story: Archetypal Themes, Plot Twists, and Becoming the Storyteller
Like many stories, my story has archetypal themes and plot twists that led me to my current story. When I was growing up, the steel industry seemed to define my hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My father worked in production planning and later, marketing, for U.S. Steel. As a teenager, I followed in his footsteps, taking various…
Read MoreTime to Write and Bring to Life a New Story
You can have many incentives to change your life: for example, recognizing that you need to change your financial situation, realizing that the person you are is not who you want to be, feeling the need to answer a spiritual call, or accepting that a relationship or situation ca’t continue as it has. As a…
Read MoreNew Year, New Theme: Getting Unstuck from Old Habits
Archetypes are patterns infused with energy. When you look at your patterns, that is, your habits of mind or behavior, you may not realize they are powerfully affecting your life. The “stickiness” of your habits reveals how much energy they hold. Some behavioral patterns can be like a sticky note, easily changed with conscious effort.…
Read MoreThanksgiving Prayers and Gratitude
Thanksgiving is a day dedicated to giving thanks for the blessings received during the year. It can also be a time for reflecting on the bounty of the Earth. Now that we have access to food year-round, we can feel disconnected from this aspect of Thanksgiving. After all, you can find pumpkin pie at a…
Read MoreIs Gossip Destructive or Productive?
We live in a world where gossip can quickly go viral. In the past, true and untrue stories told about others might spread over days or even weeks. Now they can spread in minutes. I don’t know many of the celebrities who are in the news, but I find gossip about them in the media…
Read MoreAfter the Honeymoon: Idealization and Disillusionment
A while back, I read that the honeymoon phase of most relationships is about 16 months. In that first 16 months, we glorify and idealize “the other,” thinking they perfectly complement us. And the “other” does not have to be a person. We can also glorify and idealize a new cause or new passion, such…
Read MoreThe Longest Journey Starts with One Step: Getting Started with Making Changes
It is said that the longest journey starts with one step, but sometimes, that step seems so big that we talk ourselves out of taking it. I check off the easy items my to-do list and take a long time to get to the hard ones. I tell myself, “I don’t have enough time or…
Read MoreBearing the Tension of Being Betwixt and Between
Often, when we are anxiously betwixt and between an old and a new way of being, we feel an inner urge to act quickly so as to dissipate the anxiety of waiting. Rather than taking action prematurely, we’re usually better off bearing the tension of waiting until we gain clarity about what to do. Clarity…
Read MoreYour Ideals and Choices: Questioning Your Beliefs
Your ideas about right and wrong have immense influence over the decisions you make. But how deeply have you examined the foundational values by which you are living your life? How can you discover what those values truly are? Questioning your beliefs could involve an exploration of how you would feel in hypothetical situations that…
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