Often times when things are going “wrong” in our lives, when things are making us feel “bad,” we start to believe that things can never improve; there’s no use.  “This will always be the way it is and there’s nothing I can do to change it.” We often think our circumstances are caused by other people and situations, and we can’t change until they do.  In thinking this way, we’re giving our power away.

We begin to feel discouraged and miserable.  It’s an easy trap to fall into and we’ve all gone there many times. Whether it’s bullying, problems in relationships, trouble at school or in a job, we begin to have catastrophic thinking.  We ruminate on the worst possible outcome.

Thinking this way can hold us back from taking action to make changes.  After all, if we don’t believe that anything we do will make a difference, why do anything?  Why even bother?

You do have the power to make changes!  Circmstances may be the way they are, bad things may have happened, but you can choose how you will respond to your circumstances.  We all form habitual ways of responding to situations in our life and when we continue to use the same responses, we tend to get the same results.

This is where you have to start to think outside the “jar,” to discover different responses you can take to have some control over your situation.  When we allow ourselves to believe that we are powerless to improve our situation, we do feel sad and depressed.

We all want a silver bullet; the one magical thing that will take care of all of our problems.  While there is no silver bullet, we can make gradual and small changes that will add up over time to make a difference in our life.

We have to believe that we do have some control; we can choose responses that will make a difference.

Remember the definition of insanity, “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

So, today, think outside the “jar,” and creatively choose and try out new behaviors and responses to your situation.

You do have the power to change your responses and to get different results in your life!

The power to make changes begins with you!