A funny episode of How I Met Your Mother saw one of the characters, Barney, refusing to allow any of his belongings to be thrown out when his new girlfriend, Quinn, moves in with him. Yet Quinn throws away most of her things so that they didn’t have doubles of everything.
Barney was challenged by a friend who suggested that he didn’t throw anything away because he secretly didn’t think the relationship would work out. Hence, he would be less troubled and inconvenienced if the relationship did sour. His life wouldn’t change much. His apartment, his belongings, his life. Same. Same. Same.
Obviously this caused friction between him and Quinn, which is resolved nicely with Barney making amends by the end of the episode.
If only real life could have a happy ending all wrapped in 30 minutes!
Making way for change is not easy. It’s a process, not an event. According to the Economic and Social Research Council, a British research group (October 2006), “one problem may be that we’re motivated too often by a sense of guilt, fear, or regret. Experts who study behavior change agree that long-lasting change is most likely when it’s self-motivated and rooted in positive thinking.”
To help you keep your thoughts positive we have lots of free strategies here.
What’s your best advice for keeping thoughts positive?
