Tag Archives: internal & external control

Reality Check: The Thing About Control

Posted on October 6, 2025 by RealityCheck

A long, long time ago, I was on a flight to Cape Breton for a meeting. Everything was going smoothly. I parked at the airport; had my ticket; knew where I was going and who to meet. I was prepared … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: The Present Day

Posted on June 5, 2025 by RealityCheck

We have so many opportunities to find reasons to be upset, anxious, angry, or have other difficult feelings. Your upsets might come from your personal life, from the behaviour of people close to you, such as family, community, or workplace. … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: Does It Matter Who Is Watching?

Posted on March 27, 2025 by RealityCheck

The choices that we make, both big and small, affect our lives. They contribute to whether we are reasonably satisfied or rather miserable. How do we make our choices? If our behaviour is internally motivated as Dr. Glasser suggests, then … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: Those Pictures in our Heads

Posted on February 14, 2025 by RealityCheck

Have you noticed that people sometimes make choices that don’t make sense? Maybe you’ve even done this yourself! Curious, isn’t it? We know better. Why, oh why? If you’ve been reading these columns, then you know that I have a … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: To Take Charge of Your Life

Posted on February 2, 2025 by RealityCheck

Over his long career, Dr. Wm. Glasser wrote a number of books to describe his approach to helping people get along better and live more satisfying lives. A well-known example is, “Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom.” Years … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: Does Optimism Make a Difference?

Posted on May 29, 2024 by RealityCheck

Does optimism make a difference? That is, a positive difference? Or is optimism only for the naive and easily-led, those folks who aren’t wise enough to understand how really bad and awful and disastrous everything is? If you’ve been reading … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: What We Want and What We Control

Posted on May 28, 2023 by RealityCheck

One of the structured processes used in Reality Therapy is known as WDEP, where the W stands for Wants. That is, the first step in the process is—Figure out what you want! You’d think that would be simple, wouldn’t you? … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: And the Word of the Year is…

Posted on December 11, 2022 by RealityCheck

Each year, Merriam-Webster—the dictionary people—declare a “Word of the Year” based on data about how frequently words were looked up. For 2022, the word is “gaslighting.” If you’re not familiar with gaslighting, Merriam-Webster defines it as “the act or practice … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: True to Our Chosen Self

Posted on August 21, 2022 by RealityCheck

You’ve heard the slogan, “Be true to yourself.” Combine that with a picture of a beautiful person gazing into a magnificent nature scene and you have a great poster. It sounds like good advice, too. I mean, you’d hardly advise … Continue reading →

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Reality Check: Auto-Pilot and Conscious Choices

Posted on June 19, 2022 by RealityCheck

The traffic light turns red. We stop. Well, most of us do, anyway. Did the traffic light make us stop? Not really. We could have gone sailing through, possibly causing injury and mayhem. But we choose not to do that … Continue reading →

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