Tag: Philip Dodson

Gloomy times

Posted on by philipdodson

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We all have gloomy times in life, times when things seem against us or dark clouds are parked over our heads.

At the time, it can seem like there is no coming back or no way out or things will remain this way forever.

The fact is all things pass with time and what seems bad now, will feel better even in a few hours and certainly by the next day. However, it is all a question of choice.

Often we choose to wallow in the bad, we use it to seek attention and to help justify that we are a victim.

The world isn’t stacked against us or anyone else, no one is out to get us and we are no more or less worthy than anyone else.

We have the option to choose to let things go, to realise that there is a reason for things and to try and teach ourselves not to see things as bad or not to see them as others against us.

Accepting things and moving on speeds up the process and if others are doing things that have a negative impact on our feelings, then like anything that is toxic, the best thing to do is to remove that from our lives and not look back.

A great friend of mine always says to me ‘step away from the package’.

Looking for the bigger Lego set

Posted on by philipdodson

lego

Yesterday evening I sat talking with my brother and we were reminiscing about our childhood, where we would rush on a Saturday morning armed with our pocket money to the local newsagents, Hewitt’s, and spend the lot on multi-coloured sugar treats like Black Jacks and Tutti-Fruitis.

Then hurry home for a morning of children’s TV programmes, that were occasionally interrupted by commercials.

We’d look on in awe at all the stuff advertised, clearly aimed at us, so that we would pressure our parents into why we needed an ‘Evel Knievel’ stunt bike.

The thing was we were living through the growing and ever worsening consumerism, whereby we were all being brainwashed into thinking happiness came from buying bigger stuff.

My brother and I loved Lego, each time we saw the ads for Lego sets we had that feeling of WOW!! shortly followed by a wash of disappointment we felt when we remembered how inadequate our small biscuit tins of Lego pieces were, not a set in sight.

So we were always looking for a bigger Lego set and trying to convince our parents, well normally trying to guilt them into purchasing one.

The problem in life is once you get the bigger set, you find out that happiness is always drained when you discover that there is always a bigger one that you don’t have.

Be happy with what you have already, bigger isn’t better and it will never enhance your happiness.

Focus on people, activities and meaningful things, not on stuff.