What a Day!

Sometimes you just have one of those days! this is how it went:

Had to get up at 4am for a 6.10 flight to Adelaide.

Couldn't find remote control for garage door, backed into son's car in driveway.

Arrive at airport, just miss bus from long term parking area to terminal.

Run all the way thru terminal to LAST boarding gate - FLIGHT CLOSED!!!!

What do I do: start crying, tantruming - will it change anything? NO!

What I do is - stand and take stock of my situation, THINK, walk all the way back thru terminal, out thru security, back to service desk. Book later flight (3 hours later!!!), pay money, then back thru security, buy a chai latte, sit down, BREATHE slowly, gather myself, send a dozen smss and procede to prepare myself for today's meeting and relax......

Without Choice Theory I would have cried, angered, roared at the check-in chick, argued at the service desk. My blood pressure would have been sky high and I would have been stressing about being late for the meeting. And what would have changed - NOTHING. My situation would have been exactly the same - stuck at the airport, waiting for the next flight.

THANK YOU Choice Theory for giving me the strategies to cope with whatever is thrown my way.

NOTE: Later flight was an hour late leaving!!!

Growing with Choice Theory

The following is a growth report submitted by a Basic Practicum participant.  It outlines the growth experienced as a result of the Basic Week and Basic Practicum.

Before Choice Theory, I used to believe that what others did or said was the cause of my hurt and that I could do little about this.  Since doing the Choice Theory workshop and reading several books by William Glasser, I now see this differently.   

Today, I am more inclined to recognize that I am not a victim of another or a situation, and therefore, tend to take responsibility for my perception and for the emotions I experience and then the action I choose in response.  

What I have learned from Choice Theory is that I perceive the real world through my perceptual filters (made up of sensory, total knowledge and value systems) I then compare my quality world with my perceived world, if they match then I experience feelings of satisfaction, happiness, contentment  etc. and am not motivated to change, this is because my needs and wants are being satisfied.   

Should my perceived world not match my quality world, then I have an urge to “behave” in an attempt to get my needs/wants satisfied.  My behavior is made up of four components, feeling, physiology, thinking and acting and I can be doing all four or, if I am spinning my wheels, I am stuck in feeling and need to take action in order to change the feeling.  By learning that this is how the brain works, I have been able to achieve this growth.