SELF-PITY - part 1

Articles In This Section:

· HOW RICH IS RICH? - part 1

· HOW RICH IS RICH? - part 2

· AN INVISIBLE PRICE TAG - part 1

· AN INVISIBLE PRICE TAG - part 2

· AN INVISIBLE PRICE TAG - part 3

· AN INVISIBLE PRICE TAG - part 4

· GAINING AN AWARENESS OF RICHES! - part 1

· GAINING AN AWARENESS OF RICHES! - part 2

· ARE YOU A CONTEST FAN? - part 1

· ARE YOU A CONTEST FAN? - part 2

· AVOID LOSING CONTRASTS

· SELF-PITY - part 1

· SELF-PITY - part 2

· SELF-PITY - part 3

I do not know what percentage of people pity themselves, but I am sure if such figures were available they would be astonishing. I doubt if there are very many who can feel totally free of self-pity.

"Why do people pity themselves?" I often ask myself. It is amazing how many times self-pity stems from a lack of contrasts. An individual will be living under some sort of adverse condition, and instead of taking steps to change it, will pity himself for what he has to put up with. If he could realize that he has within his power the means of changing his circumstances, he would actually welcome his existing state of affairs, because of the contrast between them and what he, through his constructive imagination, will bring into being.

Mary Pickett was a typical self-pitier. "It is just my luck to have that happen"; "I might have known I would be disappointed"; "Why do I deserve all of this bad luck?" are a few of the negatives she frequently used.

Mary always wore an expression of abject gloom. She seemed afraid to smile for fear it would belie her inner feelings.

"Why are you always so gloomy?" Mary was asked.

"Who wouldn't be, with all I have to contend with," she said drearily.

"What are a few of the things disturbing you?"

"For one thing I haven't a friend in the world. Another thing, I have a figure like a bale of hay; who would want such a person as a friend?"

As for Mary's lack of friends, questioning her revealed that she had no friends because she had never tried to be a friend. She was given a lecture on how to make friends and she promised to start on a campaign of making friends by being a friend.

So far as her "bale of hay" figure was concerned, she had pitied herself so much for her lack of friends that she took little interest in herself, physically. Mary Pickett promised to watch her food intake and exercise enough to develop an interesting figure.

What happened? Mary is now about the happiest little girl in the country. She has a host of friends. Her figure is not yet what she wants it to be, but it is so much better than it was before, it causes comment by all who see her.