Hi,
How’s it going?
I hope you are doing well. I noticed on my blog at www.bipolarcentral.com/bipolarsupporterblog
were asking “where’s David.” I really don’t know why. I am right here. What’s the reason people are asking where I am. I am here every day : )
Okay, let’s move to today’s topic.
There’s a lot of things you don’t have to be to get by in this life.
You don’t have to be popular.
You don’t have to be rich.
You don’t have to be beautiful.
You don’t have to be thin.
You don’t have to be powerful.
You don’t have to be famous.
You don’t even have to be president.
But one thing you do have to be is:
PERSISTENT.
People who get anywhere in life ARE persistent.
They set goals, and they achieve them, and that means being persistent.
If you want to get rich, that means being persistent.
You start off small, maybe with a little bit of capital, with your big goal in mind, and every day you’re persistent at your goal, and eventually you reach it, and you become rich.
The main point is, you don’t become rich overnight.
It takes being persistent to reach that goal.
That holds true for those other things I listed as well.
You just can’t reach a goal overnight.
You have to set smaller goals along the way…
And then, by being persistent, you reach that bigger goal.
People who try to reach a goal without persistence usually fall on their faces.
Do you know why?
Because they try to do it too quickly, and don’t take the steps necessary to get there.
For example, the business owner who doesn’t do it the right way, just jumps in there and maybe follows one of those “get rich quick” schemes…
And loses all his money, because he didn’t read the fine print…
Because he thought he could get rich overnight…
Because he didn’t want to pay the price…
Because he didn’t want to set the big goal and take the necessary steps to reach it…
Because he didn’t want to be persistent.
It reminds me of the old fable of the tortoise and the hare.
Do you remember it?
Where they both start off the same…
But the hare thinks he can get off easy by running quickly, then being lazy, because he underestimates the tortoise.
So he stops halfway through, and rests, figuring he can catch up easily later, and finish the race in first place.
Meanwhile, the tortoise, although the slower of the two, keeps going steadily along (with persistence), never stopping, until he reaches the finish line, winning the race.
Thus we have the expression, “Slow and steady wins the race.”
That slow and steady could be renamed “being persistent.”
And that’s what you have to do with bipolar disorder.
See, there’s lots of things you have to do to be persistent with the disorder, that I go over in my courses/systems:
SUPPORTING AN ADULT WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?
Visit:
http://www.bipolarsupporter.com/report11
SUPPORTING A CHILD/TEEN WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?
Visit:
http://www.bipolarparenting.com
HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?
Visit:
But if you’re persistent about them…
If you go after them slow and steady…
Setting big goals and persistently meeting the smaller goals along the way…
Then eventually you will reach stability…
Just like that tortoise won his race!
Do you know what I mean?
Post responses below
The reason people were asking where you were is because the daily email I receive from you came from a different name yesterday….it came from Stacy Russell. As a supporter,I appreciate your daily messages. They help me deal with my 53 year old sister who is bi polar. I have learned so much and sure wish we knew 30 years ago what she was dealing with. It makes me wonder how differently her life would have unfolded with medication and understanding.In spite of it all, she has raised 7 very successful children..doctor/firefighter, lawyer, Urban planner, plant foreman, law enforcement officer, and the last 2 twin girls off to University this fall. Her marriage ended and she has had several liasons that occured during episodes..but with your help, we have ridden out the bad times..which has included bankruptcy and some jail time. The biggest obstacle is when she decides to stop taking her medication…but your posts saying that you can’t force a person to take it and to realize that they need to be responsible to the consequences…that has given me a lot of peace as a supporter.I have also shared your info with my parents..Dad who is 84 and Mom 77 who are so shaken by her actions and don’t understand what is happening.With your help…I am trying to educate them on why she acts the way she does. Thank you David.
I am in “recovery” with my bipolar disorder. Just like an alcoholic is NEVER without that craving for alcohol, and calls himself “in recovery,” I take the little bitty steps to improve EVERY day with my bipolar.
I’m NOT perfect; I’m only TRYING to be high-functioning with it. There are times when I have a mini-episode, but these are covered by the mental health professionals I deal with at the Community Mental Health clinic. I live alone, and have NO Supporter 24/7. This makes it hard sometimes, especially now with my vertigo and possibility of falling.
While my Mom was alive, even though she didn’t believe in “mental illness,” she brought me to her house for recovery after two of my major hospitalizations for mania. That meant I didn’t have to go looking for a job or another place to live. She reacclimated me to the “normal” world – we cooked together, went shopping together, went for walks in the woods, etc. And because she didn’t believe in “bipolar disorder,” she treated me as “normal,” and made NO allowances for actions without consequences. She set boundaries, and I was too depressed after the “crash” to go against them.
I must say that I WAS persistent in my own recovery with bipolar. Although I still have mini-episodes, and recognize the “Elephant in the Living Room,” acknowledging that I have bipolar disorder, it doesn’t frighten me as much now.
BIG HUGS to all bipolar survivors and those who love us. May God bless you real good. I pray for my country.
Hi David,
I have to agree with your points. I call them baby steps, I’m pretty sure I’ve nicked that from a Bill Murray movie but never mind, it works in my house. My wife suffers from bi-polar and deals with it exceptionally well. Obviously one day can be different from another but as you mention in today’s article, if you can have a persisitent attitude you can achieve most things.
My wife was diagnosed with bi-polar around 3 years ago and was immediately quite cynical regarding new medications and therapy due to the fact she had been mis-diagnosed for nearly 7 years prior to that, so as you can imagine her patience was rather short (as it can be at the best of times). As I read more and educated myself with the ins and outs of the illness I found that the one thing that was missing in my wife’s life was a simple routine which actually contributed to her having episodes due to the fact that she was doing nothing in the evenings when she returned home from work. Being persistent with my wife over the last 3 years has assisted in building a routine and this has helped her remakably, in fact it was the purchase of a small Syrian Hamster that showed me the biggest change. She became focussed on her pet and this gave her something to focus on when she was on her way home from work. Slowly we added other small things to the evenings routine (nothing major, small things like a walk on a Wednesday night or a vist to the in-laws on a Tuesday), don’t get me wrong, she still suffers and most days she does have rather negative thoughts and opinions about the world around us but this is now in the background rather than the forefront. The best thing I think I can add to this is that she doesn’t have a regemented routine, she has things she wants to do and time to do them but she decides when. I think that follows on from what you have been talking about for the last couple of days in terms of the care aspect and allowing the person sufferring to do things for themselves. A point of interest (such as the good lady’s Hamster) can have an amazing effect and even open up interests that we may not have known we had.
All the best,
Bob
Davo;
The Genocidal Cult thet call themselves “psychiatry”
They shurely are persistant with their Pseudoscience, NOT A LEG TO STAND ON.
ALL Science Medical & otherwise Proving ALL they do CREATES ALL ths Behaviours Listed in their Self Written Bible, the DSM.
NO NONE in the Medical Fiels would put their Name to such KNOWN FRAUD.
FACTS do NOT change.
The DSM changes CONSTANTLY…