Frugal Patti

I read an account of a lady that didn’t get along well with her mother-in-law the other day. She was told by her aunt that “10% of life is what happens and 90% is how you react to it.” I’m not sure if I completely agree with the percentages, but do feel that most of what we go through on a daily basis is how we decide to react to the stressors in our lives. We all have difficult things happen in our lives (although some more than others). When we have a difficult person that we work with or in our family, getting laid off from a job, a personal or family illness, or something horrible happening in the news; we have to deal with these situations the best we can. Naturally, we have to grieve losses in our lives, and I’m not saying that we shouldn’t deal with our feelings. On the other hand, we can’t let a bad situation take over our lives. Consider if your actions are productive, are they making you feel better or worse? Write a list of productive things you can do to help the situation. What can you learn from this? If you don’t know how to deal with your feelings, often putting your feelings on paper will help. If laid off, what can you do to find another job or train for another career? There are always options, but it may take some soul searching to find the one that is right for you.