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The Friday Five - Sources Of Encouragement
1. What do you do to encourage yourself when going through hard times?
I try to stay positive, keep thinking positive thoughts, and listen to my favorite music. And recently I discovered that writing stories can have an encouraging effect too.
2. How do you motivate others?
By telling them over and over again how good we all feel when we reach the goal (whatever it is). I know it sounds like the legendary image of the donkey with the carrot dangling in front of him, but I've seen enough folks doing their best exact that way.
3. Who do you talk to for encouragement and inspiration?
As crazy as it might sound, but I talk to myself. My parents are dead, the only remaining "family" (= my godfather) has enough on their plate already, and I'm not that close to my neighbours. Sure, we talk, but more about things that go on in the house than our own problems.
4. What books have offered encouragement and inspiration?
Can't think of anyone right now. I'm more a classic literature type.
5. Which of your family members have encouraged you most over the years?
Definitely my mother. She was born right in the middle of World War II, and she had to raise me later on almost on her own when her husband (my father) had a horrible accident at work only three months after I was born. Next to that, she had to manage a move (it was in the same house, but couple that with a little baby and constant worry about your husband and it's anything else than a piece of cake). Practically my whole life, we had to make ends meet somehow, since my father didn't get the money he deserved when the company he was working for when the accident happened didn't go the correct ways of notification, and even after he went from doctor to doctor, we didn't get much more money. If I learned anything from my mother, then to make something from nothing. Even today, I try to buy only what I need and not the apparently cheaper big packs the supermarkets offer (Yeah, I sometimes buy them, but only things that I know will need anyway or will eat in the next time)
I try to stay positive, keep thinking positive thoughts, and listen to my favorite music. And recently I discovered that writing stories can have an encouraging effect too.
2. How do you motivate others?
By telling them over and over again how good we all feel when we reach the goal (whatever it is). I know it sounds like the legendary image of the donkey with the carrot dangling in front of him, but I've seen enough folks doing their best exact that way.
3. Who do you talk to for encouragement and inspiration?
As crazy as it might sound, but I talk to myself. My parents are dead, the only remaining "family" (= my godfather) has enough on their plate already, and I'm not that close to my neighbours. Sure, we talk, but more about things that go on in the house than our own problems.
4. What books have offered encouragement and inspiration?
Can't think of anyone right now. I'm more a classic literature type.
5. Which of your family members have encouraged you most over the years?
Definitely my mother. She was born right in the middle of World War II, and she had to raise me later on almost on her own when her husband (my father) had a horrible accident at work only three months after I was born. Next to that, she had to manage a move (it was in the same house, but couple that with a little baby and constant worry about your husband and it's anything else than a piece of cake). Practically my whole life, we had to make ends meet somehow, since my father didn't get the money he deserved when the company he was working for when the accident happened didn't go the correct ways of notification, and even after he went from doctor to doctor, we didn't get much more money. If I learned anything from my mother, then to make something from nothing. Even today, I try to buy only what I need and not the apparently cheaper big packs the supermarkets offer (Yeah, I sometimes buy them, but only things that I know will need anyway or will eat in the next time)
no subject
Yeah, you sometimes have to give others (or yourself) an incentive, a goal to do something (I see that every time I have to do some cleaning in my apartment XD), even if it's just a piece of chocolate or something like that.
Exactly. I mean, I know from stories my mother told me that her mother was one of the "Trümmerfrauen", who helped in the big cities to remove all the rubble that was left of the buildings when they were bombed by the Allied Forces. Working hard for hours on end, the constant danger, trying to scrap some meager pieces of bread or maybe a small bit of meat for your child, and worrying if you will ever see your husband ever, or when he will return - I don't think that any man would pull through like the women of that time did. Another great source of encouragement, by the way.
no subject
Your grandmother was an incredible woman - it was women like that who won the wars. Not the men fighting, but the women staying at home surviving, raising their children by any means possible and helping their lands to recover. We live in a better world because of them.