Author Archives: RealityCheck

Reality Check: Courage and Discouragement

Posted on February 29, 2020 by RealityCheck

If you’ve ever felt the thud of discouragement, you may have also felt that you have no control over how you respond. It’s a powerless feeling, isn’t it? What brings on those discouraged feelings? Here are a few of the … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: Agreements Among Friends

Posted on February 22, 2020 by RealityCheck

My old friend passed away. After a century of life, he’d reached his natural end. While our friendship was not so very old; it spanned only about a decade, it had huge influence on me. It was a special friendship, … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: The Compassion of Listening

Posted on February 17, 2020 by RealityCheck

If you have an active imagination, you may have a conversation going on in your head right now while you’re reading this. Perhaps you are arguing with yourself over whether you should have said that thing you said to your … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: The Gift of a Deadline

Posted on February 8, 2020 by RealityCheck

Many of us have had to work to deadlines, even if we don’t always think of them as deadlines. Whether it’s called a due date at school, a vacation date at work, or even a gathering of friends for a … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: The Dull of Winter

Posted on February 2, 2020 by RealityCheck

Winter. The dull days, grey clouds, rain, drizzle, fog, and yes, even snow, can be a hard time of year. It’s as if the sun takes a vacation (probably gone south.) For some folks, those dull days stir up dull, … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: Working with Unpredictable People

Posted on January 26, 2020 by RealityCheck

While we can never predict exactly what will happen, many situations are quite predictable. It’s painful to touch the hot stove. If I don’t believe it, it only takes one try to learn a lesson I won’t soon forget. Likewise, … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: Take It to Heart? Or Not?

Posted on January 18, 2020 by RealityCheck

Whenever people need to interact with each other, there are opportunities for conflict. Conflict shows up among friends, within families, in community discussions and at workplaces. That’s no surprise. After all, one reason for conflict is because people don’t agree … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: Reassessing Wants

Posted on January 12, 2020 by RealityCheck

Dr. Robert Wubbolding suggests a deceptively simple four-part structure derived from the practice of Reality Therapy. He calls it WDEP: Want, Do, (self)Evaluate, and Plan. The practice starts with, “What do you want?” Wants can be surprisingly confusing and the … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: The Making of a Habit

Posted on January 4, 2020 by RealityCheck

The coming of the New Year inspires many of us to make New Year’s resolutions. If you have been thinking that a change in your behaviour is in order, then the New Year is as good a time as any … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: Prepare, Then Forge On With Optimism

Posted on December 30, 2019 by RealityCheck

Back in my childhood, roughly a thousand years ago, there were a few popular doomsday scenarios that described how awful the world would be when I grew up. If I managed to make it to adulthood, that is. For example, … Continue reading →

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