7 November 2021 — PULLING OURSELVES UP BY OUR BOOT STRAPS
There are times when people say hello to me and when I don’t recognise them they tell me they were once homeless and I used to talk to them and give them money. How good it is to know that for some people the saying ‘when you are at the bottom the only way to go is UP’ is true.
Unfortunately for others it is NOT so true. I know one or two people who seem to have been homeless since forever. It has become their way of life. I wonder if their ‘sob’ story is any worse than those who have been able to change their circumstances from being homeless to NOT being homeless.
Whilst I have every sympathy with those in that condition it does make me wonder what is the ‘magic formula’ which allows people to change their circumstances and NOT be stuck in untenable situations.
Does it relate to the SELF IMAGE one has of one’s self -whether one feels one is DESERVING OF THE BEST or whether one SEES ONE’S SELF as totally NON DESERVING?
I am inclined to think that something as simple as SELF IMAGE IS THE ANSWER. And our image of ourselves denotes how SELF CONFIDENT we are.
SELF CONFIDENCE — the belief in oneself which allows us to open up to the possibility that we have the power to change our circumstances no matter how dire they may seem as expressed in the poem by Walter Whittle entitled ‘THINKING’.
‘If you think you are beaten you are/If you think you dare not you don’t/If you like to win, but think you can’t/It is almost certain you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost/for out in the world we find/success begins with a fellow’s will/It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed you are/You’ve got to think high to rise/you’ve got to be sure of yourself before/You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go/To the stronger or faster man/ But sooner or later the man who wins/Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!’
PONDER POINTS: My thoughts on reading the above are….. I feel I ‘pulled myself up by my bootstraps’ when…… the times when I expected things to go badly and they did were when …… the positive self image I have of myself is …..The times I feel I have been self confident and in charge of what happened in my life are when ….
