All your painful stories end in your being a bag lady and dying miserably – learn to reboot.   I have talked about this before in my books and with clients.  I’m talking about it again, ‘cause I need to reboot, again.

Current events with this minority president trigger my painful stories.  Painful stories are the automatic tapes that play in your head and mine.  They’re painful because they always have you losing.  The aphorism…

Never lose in your own imagination.

…Is a good one.  Quit losing.

This exactly 50 word chapter from my new book – The Twenty Second Smile –explains.  (See Amazon Author page.)

Learn to Reboot Yourself

Like old computers, you will crash.  With the computer, you just reboot and everything runs smoothly again.  Life isn’t so much about not crashing, but learning to reboot quickly when you do.  Memorize inspiring quotations to whip out as needed.  Have inspiring books at hand.  Call someone.  Eat.  Sleep.  Walk.

One of my recurring painful stories says, “You’re not seeing enough clients.”

It’s useful to ask, and then what happens, our inner lizard, described in another chapter in the book, concerns itself with survival.  Lizard responds, “…and then you’ll be a bag lady living under the bridges.”  And then what?  “You’ll die.  Miserably.”

There.

Now reboot.

I like to have a handful of aphorisms that kibosh the poop out of the painful story.  They needn’t make sense necessarily.  The painful story doesn’t have to make sense, so neither does the reboot.

The aphorisms I recruit these days are simple.

First –

Relax you’re going to die.

Strangely comforting.  As all painful stories end with death, It takes all the pressure off.

I have rehabilitated a favorite aphorism from my youth, a time when painful stories didn’t disrupt me quite as much.

Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Lastly,

          All is well.

I use them as a threesome to quell my fears and painful stories.

Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Relax you’re going to die.

All is well.

What aphorisms work for you?  How can you reboot quickly and effortlessly?

Be happy, wild, and free,

William