Hi, I hope you’re having a good day today.

You know that I have several businesses that I run, so I have many employees. Many with mental disorders, as well. I even find that the people with mental disorders do better than those that don’t have a mental disorder. Isn’t that strange? I wonder why that is.

But anyone, bipolar or not, supporter or survivor, can understand the concept of earning something.

I had someone tell me once that you don’t get anything out of life unless you put something into it. I think that’s true.

Like, you can’t expect to get paid for doing work that you don’t do – that’s not honestly earning a

wage. It’s not fair to your employer. It’s not fair to the customers. And it isn’t even fair to you.

I have this one woman who works for me that is going on vacation. Why? Because she earned it. How? Well…

1. She shows up and is prepared to do her job.

2. Besides doing her day to day work, she takes on extra projects to help me.

3. She makes and meets both long- and short-term goals.

4. She looks for ways to improve things, like developing systems.

5. She is honest with me and tells me when she is having a bad bipolar day (in other words, her communication with me is good).

6. If something isn’t working, she changes it (both professionally, and personally, like with her bipolar disorder).

7. She is very productive, and good at her job.

8. She is stable – I can count on her.

9. She is a pleasant, friendly, and loyal employee.

10. She works very hard so that she is worth giving a vacation to.

So how does all this relate to bipolar disorder? Well, it’s like earning stability. You have to do certain things to earn it. For instance, if you work really hard at the things that can make you stable, you should expect that you will eventually get stable.

But remember my point about this woman being such a good employee because she takes care of things day to day? You need to do that with bipolar disorder, too. Take care of the days, and the weeks will take care of themselves.

Like my employee, you also need to do what’s required of you. Like taking your medications and seeing your doctor, psychiatrist and therapist. You need to make and meet long- and short-term goals as well.

You should be pleasant and friendly, with a good positive attitude toward getting stable. It really is like working at a regular job, isn’t it? But that’s what you have to do if you want to earn stability.

Well, I have to go!

Your Friend,

Dave