That’s work..

I’ve been reading a book about networking as part of my attempt to find a new job. Last night I was trying to work on a few of the exercises concerning professional goals, values, etc. One of the exercises was to list 5 accomplishmnets that I am proud of. Ha! Little do they know me, do they?

On the other hand, even though it took a lot of work and I really had to stretch to get to 5, I did come up with 5 things that I am proud of. Believe me, that’s 2-3 more than I’ve ever been proud of before in my life, and 5 more than some points in my life. That’s improvement, right?

The five:

1- Survivng and overcoming child abuse and depression
2- Having a happy, healthy marriage and being a good husband
3- Having taught myself enough about computers to be very good at my current job.
4- Passing my A+ technical certifications last year
5- Gaining the confidence and comfort to be adventurous, turning that into opportunities to travel, photo, and explore the world around me.

Similar Posts

  • Lauren Book on Fight, Flight, or Freeze

    Somehow, even though this is from 2016, I hadn’t seen it until last night. It’s a TEDx talk by survivor, and advocate Lauren Book. (https://laurenskids.org)

    In it. she shares her own story, and some words about going from victim, to advocate and how we can all advocate for children, but the part that really caught my attention was the beginning, and no not just because she uses an air horn. It’s the description of our responses to trauma, and how they are just part of us, mostly outside of our control, especially as children. Lauren’s freeze response wasn’t just a one-time event either, it went on for years, and was tied to thinking that all of it was her own fault.

    If this sound familiar, that’s because it is really common. We just don’t talk about it. We don’t talk about sexual abuse at all, and if we do, this kind of response is usually met with some nasty comments about why we waited to say anything. Those comments simply communicate that the person saying them, knows nothing about the brain and trauma response.

    Don’t be that person. Watch and learn a thing or two.

  • Blaming the Victim or Soothing Our Own Anxiety?

    Whatever you choose to believe is the reason for someone being raped, or a child being abused, or someone being murdered, we all instinctively try to make sense of it, to find a reason why it happened. More importantly, we want to find that reason so that we can convince ourselves that it will never happen to us.

  • Donation made

    I’m closing up last year’s business today. I just went to Prevent Child Abuse America and donated the $35 that had been raised this year through Amazon links and CafePress referrals Thank you to everyone for making that possible. I’ve also renewed this domain for another year, so here’s to hoping this site can be…

  • |

    Sad Reality of Social Media Mixed With Depression

    I read this ESPN piece about the suicide of Penn Track athlete Madison Holleran and I thought there were a few pieces of the article that resonated with how I look at social media, and how we should, but also about how difficult it can be to cut through the fog of depression. Here’s the…

5 Comments

  1. Mike, congratulations and best wishes. So sorry to hear that you’ve suffered child abuse and depression. Me, too. I just started to face it about 6 months ago. I’m 45 now, abuse was when I was 8-10. How did you overcome?

  2. John,

    A lot of time, a lot of work, a lot of reorienting the way I looked at everything and everyone. It’s an ongoing process, believe me. 🙂

  3. Wishing you all the best on the job search and good for you for doing the reflective work.

    (Why is it so hard for us (survivors) to compliment ourselves, feel good about our work and the like?! – I too have experienced this and it is frustrating.)

    Again, all the best,
    Leah

  4. I feel as if child abuse is based on someone ignorance. The person probably has low self-esteem and has anger problems. So instead of them taking their anger out on the person that caused it they will take it out on their children. Mainly because they know that their children will not strike back. That’s how i feel and someone needs to put an end to all this. I have suffered sex abuse when I was 12-15 and now I’m only 16, but I’m getting over it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

To respond on your own website, enter the URL of your response which should contain a link to this post's permalink URL. Your response will then appear (possibly after moderation) on this page. Want to update or remove your response? Update or delete your post and re-enter your post's URL again. (Find out more about Webmentions.)