Thursday, January 27, 2011

A little guilt can go a long way (#727)

This is strange for me to be talking about this. My normal response to whether guilt has any place in my life is no, yet I have a found at least one purpose for it. If it helps spur me to change something, uncomfortably realized about myself, to the better. Such is what happens occasionally when I am unfamiliar about a process, I have an opportunity to change something I don't like. All of us find ourselves in a position of ranting about something and not thinking instead about how to change it. When I do rationalize what I am doing and what I should be doing it hits home like the guilt of my hand being caught in the cookie jar. This is the type of guilt I am talking about. Not the kind of guilt I used to feel for mistakes in my past. I don't forget the guilt but I don't let myself wallow in it. That type of guilt is just a reminder to me not to go back to the ways that prompted it. The helpful guilt I allow myself to ponder is a guilt of construction. I am always talking about how I love to learn and be in a constant state of learning. This guilt is a genesis of new learning for me. I know that I have passion for something when the guilt of it hits me. What I need to do with that passion is where I can start once the guilt expresses itself to me. My process is to stop and think for a moment or two instead of get angry for feeling guilty. Truly! lol. My initial behavior is to lash out at the one who triggered the guilt within me. My learning is on-going and that is another prime example. Within minutes after processing whatever occurrence triggered the guilt I am able to smile to myself and get a healthy view of what other options are available for me to find solutions.

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