“With Everything That Has Happened To You, You Can Either Feel Sorry For Yourself, or Treat What Happened To You As A Gift”

 Posted by Bill on December 12, 2011  How to Communicate with Your Kids, Raising Children as a Single Parent, Taking Time for Yourself  No Responses »
Dec 122011
 

 

“With everything that happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.” Wayne Dyer

Over the years I have reflected back on this quote on more than one occasion. I have even sometimes wondered if the author was a single parent. During the past nine years I have been through living with an addictive wife, a broken marriage, interventions, rehab. centers, a separation, a divorce, the death of my children’s mother, the death of their grandmother, the executor of two estates, an IRS audit (which I won), a failing business, the meltdown of my investments in the stock market, a depreciating home value, raising my children on my own 24/7, dealing with their grief, anxiety and fear issues while wondering when, or if, it will ever stop? So again I say to myself:

“With everything that happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.” Continue reading »

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Are You In Denial?

 Posted by Bill on May 15, 2011  Balancing Work and Children, Dealing with Divorce and Your Ex, Nutrition, Raising Children as a Single Parent, Single Entrepreneur Mom, Taking Time for Yourself  3 Responses »
May 152011
 

Today I want to challenge each and everyone of you with my blog. I want to challenge you to be brutally honest with yourself and ask yourself just one question “Are you in Denial?”. I will bet that the majority of you will emphatically answer NO. I’m not in denial, I fully accept what has gone on in my life, what is going on in my life and why it has all happened, I have no regrets… But I will say to you right now that you ARE in denial, you just don’t know it yet. First let’s understand what denial is.

Webster’s Dictionary defines Denial as:

Refusal to admit the truth or reality (as of a statement or charge) (2) : assertion that an allegation is false. Continue reading »

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“You Had Me At Hello”

 Posted by Bill on March 28, 2011  Balancing Work and Children, Dealing with Divorce and Your Ex, General, Getting Your New Life In Order, How to Communicate with Your Kids, Organizing, Raising Children as a Single Parent, Taking Time for Yourself, Teenagers  No Responses »
Mar 282011
 

In the 1986 movie “Jerry Maguire” there is a famous line where Jerry (Tom Cruise) flies back home to meet Dorothy ( Renee Zellweger) to tell her that he loves her and wants her in his life, and she tells him “You had me at hello”. What made that line so famous was that although the couple had been arguing for sometime, those five words “You had me at hello” said it all.

Sometimes in life when we say less, we are actually saying more!

When I was growing up,  my friends and I would pass each other in the hall and nod our heads. It was our way of acknowledging each other. Nodding our heads was our way of letting the other person know that they meant something to us. Nodding our heads said it all. Continue reading »

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Everything I Need To Know About Life I learned In The Last 60 Days!

 Posted by Bill on March 14, 2011  Balancing Work and Children, Dealing with Divorce and Your Ex, General, Getting Your New Life In Order, How to Communicate with Your Kids, Organizing, Raising Children as a Single Parent, Taking Time for Yourself, Teenagers, The Craziness of Single Parenting, Uncategorized  3 Responses »
Mar 142011
 

What have I been doing with my life? I always thought that life was suppose to teach me things each and every step of the way. As a young boy I attended school every day because I was told that it would teach me things that I didn’t already know. I graduated from college thinking that I would be wiser from the experience. I have tried and failed on my own for what seems like forever, because I was told that life lessons are invaluable. Imagine my surprise when I finally realized that “Everything I Need To Know About Life I learned In The Last 60 Days”! . Here are the things that I have learned about life over the past 60 days.

* Hard work does pay off.

* Time spent by yourself is the best way to reflect upon what’s important to you, and only you. It’s also a great way to calm your mind. Continue reading »

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I Think I’m Going To Be Single For Awhile…

 Posted by Bill on January 31, 2011  Balancing Work and Children, Dealing with Divorce and Your Ex, General, Getting Your New Life In Order, Taking Time for Yourself, Uncategorized  1 Response »
Jan 312011
 

It seems that I am always getting emails from people asking me what the secret to happiness is as a single parent?  So many of these people are just plain unhappy being single as, a single parent. They seem to believe that they need to be with someone in order to validate their life. Then I get the emails from the married people telling me how unhappy they are, and again, if they were just single they would be happier. To this group I say “Be careful what you wish for”. The only place that you are going to find true happiness is first and foremost, within yourself. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

So why is it that everyone who is married thinks that I have the perfect life as a full time single dad. My friend Mike likes to tell me that I have it all figured out. I have branded myself at www.singleparentstown.com as a single dad, and in order to continue my mission, I must stay single. I remind him that some day I hope to find my soul mate again and live happily ever after, but he doesn’t believe me. He says  that he just likes to live vicariously through me. I then have to remind him that I have no vicarious to live through…

I recently noticed on Facebook that I must be single, married or complicated. Why are those the only options I have? Why can’t I be single and uncomplicated? What about those who want to be single and married? Or those that are married and want to be single? Oops, I better not go there… What about those who are complicated and want to be uncomplicated? Facebook really needs to give us all a few more options if we truly want to let our friends know who we are. Continue reading »

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The Chinese New Year of…….YOU

 Posted by Bill on January 10, 2011  General, Getting Your New Life In Order, Taking Time for Yourself, The Craziness of Single Parenting, Uncategorized  1 Response »
Jan 102011
 

Recently my friend Davis Ehrler wrote a great blog Dare To Be YOU! here at www.singleparentstown.com We exchanged  some fun emails back and forth about the blog, and during one of those emails the Chinese New Year came up. It made me start to think about why the Chinese name each year after an animal. What I found out was that the use of animal symbols in the Chinese Zodiac dates back to the 6thCentury. According to legend, the Jade Emperor, invited all the animals in the kingdom to celebrate the New Year, at the end of the first lunar month.

For unknown reasons, only twelve animals came (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit “In some versions it’s Cat,” Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig”) . The Jade emperor was so happy to see them that he decided to name a year after each of them. The animal would have an influence on everyone born in that year and would bestow its main characteristics on them.

These twelve animals formed the Chinese Zodiac, based on the lunar calendar, by order of their arrival, and are listed above. Continue reading »

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How Do You Spell Love?

 Posted by Bill on December 27, 2010  Balancing Work and Children, Dealing with Divorce and Your Ex, General, Getting Your New Life In Order, How to Communicate with Your Kids, Raising Children as a Single Parent, Taking Time for Yourself, Teenagers, The Craziness of Single Parenting, Uncategorized  2 Responses »
Dec 272010
 

Whenever I speak to groups, I always like to give them a little spelling test. It is really a very easy test, but one that everyone always seems to fail. My question is “How do you spell Love”? Most of the time everyone will proudly answer, L.O.V.E. Oh sure there are the occasional L.U.V.’s that come out, but in general L.O.V.E. is the answer. Each time I do this I have to correct the audience. The real way to spell L.O.V.E. is T.I.M.E. If you truly want to show your children, your family, your friends, yourself  and others in your life that you love them, then you need to spend time with them.

If there is one thing that we never seem to have enough of it’s time. We all seem to be busy running around, taking care of ourselves, our kids, our jobs and are so preoccupied with life, that we just don’t spend enough time with those that are closest to us. Every year around this time, what is the one thing that we all like to say? “Where has the time gone”? Someone once told me that if you want to live forever then get married, because when you are single times flies by and once you get married, time slows down to a crawl:) That person by the way is now divorced! Continue reading »

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