sandy79: (ken)
sandy79 ([personal profile] sandy79) wrote2015-08-22 12:53 am
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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)


[identity profile] spikesgirl58.livejournal.com 2015-08-22 06:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Exactly. I think self motivation is the key to any sort of success. You never know what you are capable of until you try, but there are times when putting up your feet and enjoying that bit of chocolate is so, so good.

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.