Category: Appreciation

Are You Proud Of Where You Are From?

People often have a complicated relationship with their own past. Which raises the question: Are you proud of where you are from?

There are many reasons why you might be proud of where you grew up, some personal and some others more general.

For the personal, you might note the place you learned to ride a bike, or had your first kiss, or made a particular friend. Or the place you are from might be notable for some other reason, like being a champion in a sport, or producing a famous person.

There are just as many reasons why you might be ashamed of where you are from, following the same general types. If something bad or traumatic happened to you as a child, you might easily associate that with where it took place. Or your home town might be famous for something negative, like drug use, or producing a serial killer.

Of course, it seems likely that where you come from produces in you both shame and pride in some combination. Just like people, places are complicated, with any number of both good and bad points. Does the good outweigh the bad, in your opinion? Or vice versa?

The last thing to consider is just how you define “from”. You can be “from” a house, a neighborhood, a town, a state, or a country. And you might well feel a mixture of pride and shame, in different proportions, over each one. It’s perfectly reasonable, for example, to feel pride in your country while still being ashamed of some of the things it has done.

Do you feel great pride or shame over where you originated? Why do you feel that way, and how has it changed as you’ve gotten older?

Related questions: Where are you from? What makes a place feel like home? What are you the most proud of?

 

Highlight Reel Or Full Event?

When you want to watch something (say, a sporting event) is it enough to view a highlight reel? Or do you want to see all of it?

Share why if you wish.

Highlight Reel Or Full Event?
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Do You Celebrate Small Wins?

Keeping motivated when working on something long and complicated can be a real challenge. In order to do so, do you celebrate small wins?

In theory, celebrating small wins seems like an easy and effective way to do this. Celebrating makes you feel good, and a bunch of smaller victories will eventually turn in to a large one.

However, in practice there are many obstacles standing in the way of marking progress in this fashion.

First of all, it can feel very unnatural. Our society encourages us to make a big deal only when something is finished. But celebrating something partway done may feel premature. “Don’t count your chickens until they hatch,” as the saying goes.

Similarly, if you make the wins too small, celebrating can feel downright silly. To use a trivial example, if you are reading a thousand page book, finishing page one doesn’t seem like anything noteworthy. However, you can’t finish page one thousand without finishing page one first. Sometimes, even the smallest of accomplishments can be worth commemorating.

Another problem with our societal expectations comes from celebrating at all. Some of us are taught from an early age to be humble. If that is the case for you, denoting your own accomplishments can feel like boasting or bragging, which may be frowned upon.

Can you get past these issues? How might you go about structuring a project so that there are obvious points to mark your progress, and yes, even to celebrate? Do you make a point to think about your own victories, or to play cheerleader for other people to point out the progress they are making?

Related questions: How do you define success? What keeps you motivated? How do other people motivate you? How can you turn a loss into a win?

What Catalog Do You Enjoy Most?

Do you receive catalogs in the mail? Are there any you particularly look forward to getting and perusing?

Share why if you wish.

Best Of Times Or Worst Of Times?

Are we living in the best of times, or the worst of times? It might seem things look dark, but there is no doubt we live in an age of miracles.

Share why if you wish.

Best Of Times Or Worst Of Times?
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