By mastering the powerful energy of outrage and putting it to work for you, you can address anger issues without destroying yourself or others. 

The Question We Should Ask Ourselves is Not Do You Get Angry, but Why

Everyone experiences negative emotions, such as anger, hurt, and feelings of betrayal.

Learning to understand and manage anger can be deeply rewarding. Sometimes anger is our immediate response to a difficult situation. At other times, it masks feelings that are even harder to face, such as shame. Learning to express anger constructively can help us recognize and address the emotions beneath it.

One way to lessen anger’s intensity is to pause and name what we are feeling: “I’m disappointed in this moment.” We can then explore that feeling by saying, “I’m disappointed because…” and completing the thought honestly. For example: “I feel disrespected,” “I feel taken for granted,” “I feel that my beliefs have been dismissed,” or “I feel hurt because you broke my trust.” We can also ask ourselves whether the intensity of our anger reflects what has just happened or whether earlier experiences are contributing to our reaction.

By breaking anger down into specific feelings and concerns, we make it easier to understand and manage. Rather than screaming, insulting someone, or becoming physically aggressive, we can step back and give ourselves time to calm down. Raising our voices or making threats does not make our concerns more valid or bring us closer to a resolution. It can turn a difficult conversation into a struggle for dominance, leaving both people defensive and hurt.

As we calm down, we regain our composure and become better able to choose how to respond. Letting go of the need to be right creates room to listen, reflect, and speak with care. The legal, ethical, cultural, and social standards that shape our judgments may matter, but they need not be the only lens through which we view a conflict. We can also consider the feelings, needs, and experiences of everyone involved.

From that calmer place, we might say, “Let’s begin again and talk about what has upset us, with greater sensitivity to each other.” The goal is to express our feelings clearly while giving understanding and resolution a chance.

You may have trouble showing disappointment in the form of anger in appropriate ways because our society does not encourage such expressions. Early on, in fact, we are conditioned to contain our anger. We learn to rationalize our silence by saying we deserve whatever is making us angry, and we believe we are powerless to change the situation. In reality, we must convert our anger or raw rage into outrage. Outrage is a tremendous motivator when it is channeled constructively.

By joining together with other outraged people, you can become a great force for social change. When women boycotted meat in 1978 because the price was too high, the cost came down within two weeks. When people protested the use of MSG and sugar in baby food, the manufacturers took it out. When concerned citizens said that dolphins should not be caught along with yellow fin tuna, the practice was stopped.

Enormous change occurs when a few people focus their outrage constructively. For this reason, those who have an investment in the status quo discourage anger. They don’t want to jeopardize what they have attained. Middle and upper-middle class whites and blacks often do not speak out for fear of losing their symbols of success. But the irony is that once you are afraid to speak out, you become disempowered. When you lose your voice you become invisible. Suppressing angry feelings is ultimately destructive to your well-being. It can even make you physically sick. One way or another, you must learn to validate your anger and express it properly.

Think of something that angers you. Write it down. Does this anger motivate you to change the situation in a constructive way? If you are suppressing your anger, think of an appropriate way to express it instead. What first step can you take?

Why Do You Get Angry?

You may experience anger for a variety of reasons. Some of these include:

• Feeling powerless
• Being victimized
• Failing to communicate
• Getting defensive
• Feeling betrayed
• Feeling hurt
• Feeling attachment and loss
• Feeling guilty
• Having unresolved conflicts
• Feeling insecure
• Having your beliefs violated

Feeling Powerless

In this case, you feel angry when you cannot control your circumstances. An example: You are being audited by the IRS. A stranger is sitting across from you who in all likelihood will impose a penalty against you for something you have not done. You feel frustrated, fearful, powerless and, ultimately, angry in the face of this bureaucracy.

A newer version of this same powerlessness has crept into the modern workplace. More jobs now involve being scheduled, evaluated or even dismissed by an algorithm rather than a person — a delivery app that reassigns your route without explanation, a scheduling system that cuts your hours based on a metric you can’t see, a hiring or performance tool that filters you out before a human ever reads your name. There’s no stranger across the desk to appeal to, which somehow makes the powerlessness worse, not better. If this describes a piece of your working life, it belongs on the list below along with the IRS auditor.

Write about a situation in which you feel powerless. It could be something that happened to you as a child or something occurring in the present. Get in touch with your anger. Express these feelings on paper.

Being Victimized

Victimization causes a deep and persistent anger. Children who are victims develop especially strong feelings of anger that may surface in unhealthy ways later in life. It may take a lot of work to resolve such feelings. People who were sexually abused as children, for example, may have difficulty having healthy sexual relationships as adults. Each sexual encounter reminds them of their victimization, sometimes subconsciously. They need to do much work, alone or in groups, to let go of their past. Otherwise their anger will continue to manifest in unhealthy ways.

Think of a situation in which you felt victimized. It can be a major life trauma or something small. Get in touch with the anger this event stirs in you. How did you react to the event? How did you use your anger? Did you resolve the situation constructively? If not, what steps can you take to do so now?

Failing to Communicate

When someone does not communicate with you, or vice versa, the indifference will create anger. Conversely, you show others that you care by communicating openly. This approach to a relationship is healing. Recently a newspaper article told of a domestic fight between the head of a ballet company and his wife. The husband was arrested for becoming violent with his wife when she refused to talk about their failing relationship. How much violence in the world would be avoided if we communicated openly and honestly?

Think of a person in your life with whom you have trouble communicating. How does that obstacle anger you? Write down what you would like to say to that person.

Getting Defensive

People in powerful positions can become defensive when a challenge to their judgment threatens their image. I saw this during the COVID pandemic, when questions about public health decisions often became battles over credibility rather than opportunities to examine evidence. To me, the deeper issue was the difficulty of acknowledging uncertainty, listening to criticism, and admitting mistakes. When people feel their concerns have been dismissed, anger grows and trust begins to erode.

An empowered person can hear a challenge without treating it as a personal attack. The same should be true of the institutions entrusted with protecting us. Restoring confidence requires openness, an honest examination of alleged harms, and accountability where the evidence warrants it. Otherwise, unresolved anger can harden into despair and lasting distrust.

Write about a situation that made you angry. Was your ego involved, or were you expressing your true beliefs and facing someone else’s ego? In what way did either of you become defensive? Try to make an honest assessment of the situation.

Feeling Betrayed

No one likes to be betrayed, especially by someone they trust. You feel hurt and angered by the experience and lose all faith in that person. You wonder when they will lie to you next. It’s important at such times to express your anger to the person. Don’t hide your feelings, be honest.

Feeling Hurt

I was on a television show once when a man launched a vicious verbal assault against me. I had never been attacked in that way before. I just relaxed and smiled knowing that what he was saying was untrue, so I let him rant and calmly to show his ignorance and that worked. I understood his yelling and screaming wasn’t going to win him any points with the national audience. That was forty years ago on the Morton Downey show. In all debates, speak with confidence and humility. Do not try to show that the other person’s arguments are without merit, instead acknowledge that the person may truly believe in what they are saying, but yelling and screaming weakens their arguments. Always bring civility to disagreements. Afterwards the executive producer said to me “you won the debate because you stayed calm and your rebuttals were reasonable, the audience doesn’t appreciate being yelled at.” Today whether it’s a debate or a discussion on most issues, it’s as if you’re in a street gang brawl. It’s an embarrassment, with people yelling over each other, denouncing the person as a racist, fascist or nazi or unqualified. And not only should you not be believed, but you should be destroyed. The internet has become today’s version of the Roman coliseum’s gladiator fights – do anything or say anything to win. 

Recall a time when someone hurt you. Did you turn the anger in on yourself or did you express your feelings openly? Were you able to separate yourself from the person attacking you and not absorb it? How have you become wiser from the experience?

Feeling Attachment and Loss

The more attachment you feel toward a person or thing, the more its loss will provoke anger. Think of the times in your life when you experienced the loss of a job, a friend or a loved one. If the loss angered you, then you were measuring your success by the things you had accumulated. You felt these people and things made your life more secure.

You need to examine all the losses in your life. Did you feel angered by loss or were you able to let go and move on? In times of loss, it may help you to make this affirmation, I can’t change what I’ve lost, but I can remember the remarkable moments of when it was still there to be enjoyed. I will start over to create new realities, new friends and new remarkable moments.

Feeling Guilt

In today’s society, we feel a lot of pressure to conform to narrow, specialized roles. Societal attitudes often are reinforced within the family unit, and people are encouraged from all sides to feel guilty about being different or expressing what is unique to them. Guilt makes us feel controlled or manipulated; hence, it is a primary source of anger. It makes you afraid to take risks, to challenge yourself and grow. It keeps you in line with thoughts such as, “Good boys don’t do this, and good girls don’t do that.” It negates anything on the other side of the accepted paradigm, including joy, happiness and new horizons. How has guilt kept you under control? Can you get in touch with the anger fueling that guilt?

Having Unresolved Conflicts

When someone says or does something that you believe is wrong, you may internalize the conflict and start an argument in your head. The many things you should and should not have said will run through your mind, and you may berate yourself for not having had the courage to stand up to the other person. You’re angry with that person but you’re equally angry with yourself. You feel like a coward.

The problem with this response to conflicts, however, is that you are listening to the wrong voice. The negative voice inside you has been allowed to supersede its positive counterpart. That negative voice has enormous power to mute the positive voice and prevent it from having an equal say.

In this way, you can carry multiple unresolved conflicts with you through life. And when you finally do express yourself from this passive position, the response is generally out of context. You may express such rage that you end up hurting yourself and others. Needless to say, you can never solve your problems constructively in this manner.

Think of an unresolved conflict in your life. Meditate on the situation. What does your higher self say to you about it? If any negative voices or feelings appear, ignore them. Can you accept that you did the best you could at the time?

Feeling Insecure

Insecurity breeds anger. By definition, codependent people are insecure and, therefore angry. But they suppress their anger to maintain a stable relationship. Their anger then manifests in unhealthy ways. What are you insecure about? What makes you angry? How do you manifest your anger? What steps can you take toward feeling more secure?

Having Your Beliefs Violated

Your beliefs provide you with a sense of security. Thus, you feel threatened the moment someone challenges them, no matter how gently. You become defensive and angry. The more you have invested in your ego, the greater your need to be right. Being right becomes more important than doing right. Much conflict in the world today stems from this source.

What types of challenges to your belief systems upset you? Why do they make you feel uncomfortable? Picture yourself in your challenger’s shoes. Can you see his perspective on the issue? Why or why not?

How Does Your Anger Manifest Itself?

When you are angry inside, the emotion may express itself in many ways, some more healthy than others. The more common manifestations of anger include:

• Rage and aggression
• Repression, suppression and sublimation
• Disease
• Passive-aggressive behavior

Rage and Aggression

Rage is a destructive expression of anger. When you express rage, you can become very imbalanced. Rage can escalate into violence, as often happens with street gangs.

Repression, Suppression and Sublimation

Rather than express rage outwardly, most people turn the feeling inward. This type of suppression can be devastating because it allows the rage to eat away at you. It can cause you to become sick and dysfunctional.

People usually cope with anger in dysfunctional ways. You may try to feel something other than anger by throwing yourself into unproductive activities, such as compulsive sex, eating, drinking or drug addiction. Perhaps you become a workaholic, complying with an inner voice that says you can make the anger go away by doing your work perfectly. At the same time, though, you will feel even more angry at the inner tyrant who will not allow you to rest. You may sublimate your anger by committing your life to a cause that is likely to be related in some way to the primary source of your anger. Or you may spend too much time watching television, listening to the radio, or talking to people. You keep busy so you don’t have to feel your anger.

The modern equivalent of “spending too much time watching television” is spending too much time scrolling. Compulsive phone-checking runs on the very same mechanism as any other habit of sublimation — it occupies the mind so thoroughly that the underlying anger never gets the chance to surface and be dealt with. The feed doesn’t demand anything of you the way a real conversation about your anger would, which is precisely why it’s such a comfortable place to hide.

Many people displace feelings of rage by watching violent contact sports, such as mixed martial arts, football and hockey, or by watching violent movies. By supporting the aggressive actions of others, you sublimate your own rage. Why do you think most people do not protest the conflicts in Iran, Gaza and Ukraine? Do you think they really care about the political issues involved?

Do you identify with any of these forms of expressing, repressing, suppressing or sublimating rage? If so, write down some ideas for more constructive ways of dealing with your anger. Recognize that these dysfunctional behaviors will disempower you and prevent you from getting to the root of the problem. Instead, you must get in touch with who and what makes you angry. Write down what you are truly angry about. You can even write a letter to your parents or another important person in your life expressing this anger. Delivering the letter is not important; what counts is to actively recognize your anger.

Disease

Due to the connection between mind and body, disease and anger go hand in hand. Truly happy people have far fewer diseases than unhappy people. Therefore, you need to think about the ways in which your anger affects you physically. Try to resolve the problems and issues that create mental pressure before they can affect your health.

Passive-Aggressive Behavior

Many people withdraw from their anger and deny its existence. This often happens as you age, especially if you have not had a fulfilling life. But the denial of anger can lead to passive-aggressive behavior. You smile on the outside but feel angry on the inside. Your negativity expresses itself in behaviors for which you cannot be clearly blamed but that cause distress for others. For example, do you overcommit yourself and then drag your feet about doing what you said you would do? Do you make nasty comments and then tell the other person that you were only joking?

Social media has given passive-aggression a whole new toolbox. The vague, unnamed post that everyone in your circle knows is aimed at one particular person; the sudden, unexplained unfollow; the “like” withheld from someone you’re upset with as a small, deniable punishment — these are the digital-age cousins of the nasty comment followed by “I was only joking.” They carry the same message and the same evasion of responsibility, just dressed up in a new outfit.

Think of ways that you deny your anger and withdraw into yourself. Can you get in touch with what you are denying? Can you identify any passive-aggressive behaviors you exhibit? What first steps can you take to changing a negative life situation into a more positive one?

How Have You Dealt with Anger in Different Stages of Your Life?

As a child, teenager, young adult, adult and mature adult, how have you processed anger? Note the different behavioral patterns in which you have engaged. For each stage of life, determine when your anger caused you to react to situations and when it motivated you to take action and make positive changes.

What Does and Does Not Work in Your Life?

Make a list of the things that work in your life. This exercise will help you to see that control empowers you. It makes you feel positive about yourself and allows you to deal with issues in a constructive way. Then make a list of the areas of your life that do not work. You should be able to respect what works and focus your attention on what does not.

What Fears Do You Have?

Some of your fears are realistic, others are not. Unrealistic fears are conditioned, such as the fear of trying something new. A woman with grown children who stops herself from going back to school to further her education has a fear of trying something new and different. She is allowing her growth to be limited by unrealistic fear.

Don’t give all of your fears legitimacy. Learn to distinguish between fears that are reasonable and those that are not. Once you expose your fears for what they are, you will be taking a first step toward eliminating them.

Why Do You Suppress Anger?

The thought of rejection may cause us to suppress our anger because we want to be liked and accepted by others. We may silence our anger because we do not want to be punished for expressing our true feelings. When I oppose policies of the Food and Drug Administration, for example, I run the risk of making them act more aggressively and maliciously toward me. Most people do not want to deal with such hostility. You may feel exactly as I do on certain issues, but you suppress your anger because you fear the consequences.

This particular fear has a modern amplifier. Speak up about an unpopular position today and you don’t just risk one agency or one boss taking notice — you risk a pile-on from thousands of strangers, screenshots taken out of context, and a controversy that outlives the original point you were trying to make by weeks or months. It’s a real and rational fear, not a foolish one. But the same principle still holds: anger that is justified and focused, and that you’ve thought through rather than fired off in the heat of the moment, remains one of the few tools that actually moves entrenched systems.

Perhaps you are afraid that anger will cause you to lose control and hurt someone. But this will only happen if you are full of rage and destructive anger. When your anger is justified and focused, it can only be healing to express it. Our society uses control to keep you from speaking out in your best interests. Losing control is healthy if it turns a negative situation into a positive one. Consider the environmental movement of recent years. Anger directed in a beneficial way has led to many constructive changes in our environment.

Notice the ways in which you suppress anger. What types of situations cause you to suppress your feelings? What are your reasons for keeping it in? Write down actions you can take to express that anger in a constructive way.

Have You Found Healthy Ways to Express Hurt and Anger?

From this point on, resolve to deal with your anger in healthy ways that will lead to positive changes. By mastering the powerful energy of anger and putting it to work for you, you can create almost anything you want in life. Here’s how you can start this process of self-expression:

• Be honest with yourself
• Seek support
• Focus on the problem
• Direct your anger
• Think first
• Be active, not passive
• Act, don’t react
• Don’t hurt anyone
• Let go of pain and fear
• Stop compulsive behavior
• Give up perfectionism
• Learn new responses
• Organize your life
• Act in your best interests
• Make your word your bond
• Set attainable goals
• Take charge of your life

Be Honest with Yourself

Have an honest dialogue with yourself each morning about what is bothering you. Give yourself the time to reflect on these issues in a place where you will not be distracted.

Seek Support

Share your feelings with someone who will understand your needs and your reason for being angry without criticizing or judging you.

Focus on the Problem

Evaluate one problem at a time. Keep your energy focused on finding and promoting solutions until the problem is resolved.

Direct Your Anger

Your ability to channel anger can make all the difference in whether your feelings are positive or negative. Properly directed, anger can be a driving force in your life. But if channeled incorrectly, it can become mentally and physically destructive.

There are many avenues for expressing anger constructively. An artist, for example, can use his or her work to express anger and frustration toward society. Think of what a protest would be like without artists’ posters, folk singers’ songs and poets’ verses. Its perspective would be limited without these constructive expressions of anger.

Think First

The old adage that tells us to count to ten when we feel angry has a great deal of merit. Reflection allows you to think before you react. You can consider what you want to say, why you want to say it and what will happen when you do. You can think through your options and react in a rational way. In the process, you free yourself from conditioned responses and focus on those that will improve the situation.

There’s real neuroscience behind counting to ten. In the first moments of a strong emotional trigger, the amygdala — the brain’s rapid threat-detection center — fires well before the prefrontal cortex, the part responsible for weighing consequences and choosing a measured response, has a chance to catch up. That gap is only a matter of seconds, but it’s exactly the window in which people say and do things they later regret. The old advice to pause and count wasn’t folk wisdom dressed up as psychology; it turns out to be a fairly accurate description of how long it takes your own reasoning to come back online.

Much of your pain emanates from your conditioning. Think about the origins of this conditioning. How can you change your perceptions? If certain words or gestures upset you more than they do other people, this is due to your conditioning. The key to resolving such conflicts is introspection. It allows you to determine the sources of these conflicts and the purpose they actually serve. It gives you an opportunity to become aware of old patterns of behavior that are destructive to you and to replace them with more positive ones. Through introspection we become more acutely aware of the inner workings of our minds and emotions.

Be Active, Not Passive

If you are passive in a situation that calls for action, your submissiveness will allow other people to take advantage of you. And this experience, in turn, will breed even more anger. Take action to resolve such situations. Seek support if necessary.

Act, Don’t React

Every time something angers you, ask yourself whether you will act or react to it. Being active allows you to maintain a sense of focus; being reactive does not.

Don’t Hurt Anyone

Uncontrolled anger can lead to violence on many levels. Domestic violence results from unmitigated anger, while war results from the egotism of leaders. Conflicts should be resolved before anyone suffers. As the saying goes, “First, do no harm.” When something angers you, try to remove yourself from the situation. Think of yourself as a referee in the altercation. Call time out. What would you ask these people to do before they engage in conflict? By taking a few seconds to remove yourself from direct conflict, you will be able to evaluate the situation more fairly.

Let Go of Pain and Fear

When your pain and fear no longer serve you, learn to let go of them. By doing so, you will be free to express yourself constructively. Remember that you cannot feel freedom until the pain is removed; these opposing feelings cannot exist at the same time.

Look at the causes of your pain and fear. Examine these feelings and say, “You’ve been with me for a long time, but I no longer need you. I’m going to try something else.” Let it go, knowing that something better will take its place. Continue to reaffirm this goal and you will find a way to accomplish it.

Stop Compulsive Behavior

You know when you are about to act compulsively. It doesn’t just happen on its own. You don’t just open the refrigerator and eat a three-pound cake without knowing it, for example. You know exactly what you plan to do, and then you do it. Therefore, you should be able to stop compulsive impulses the moment they start. Have a constructive dialogue with yourself. Say, “Hold on. This is the wrong voice. There is no way I’m going to listen to you. You have no power or control over me. I’m in control of my life now. Good-bye.” When you refrain from compulsive actions, they will eventually begin to go away. And you will create new, positive habits to replace these compulsions.

Understanding why compulsions are so sticky can make this dialogue easier to have. Habit researchers describe a loop of cue, routine and reward, with dopamine released not so much at the moment of reward itself as at the anticipation of it — which is exactly why checking a phone, refreshing a feed or reaching for a snack can feel almost involuntary. App designers have studied this loop closely and built products that exploit it on purpose, using unpredictable rewards (you never know if the next scroll will bring something interesting) to keep the loop firing. None of that makes the compulsion your fault. It does mean that recognizing the cue — the specific moment right before the reach for the phone or the fridge — is where you actually have leverage, more so than trying to white-knuckle your way through the craving itself.

Give Up Perfectionism

You may pursue perfection to justify living in an imperfect world. But this urge will make you angry with yourself and the rest of the world. Stop looking for perfection and look instead at the realities of life. You must be honest about who you are because that’s your starting point. Evolve from there and don’t be impatient. You can’t force a rose to grow on schedule. It grows when it is ready to do so, according to the laws of nature.

Learn New Responses

If you always react according to the same old formulas, learn to respond to life in new ways. You can write your own script in life and make active choices. How will this script be different from the one you were given? This is your chance to eliminate the things that do not work for you, such as the dictates of your upbringing, your education and the way you relate to others. Of course, you can’t alter events that have already occurred. But you can redirect your life from this point on.

Organize Your Life

Get rid of the junk that clutters up your life. It feels good to eliminate things you don’t need. Pack it up, give it away, throw it away—whatever it takes to start fresh. Clean up your desk, your closet, your car, and your body. The physical world reflects the mind. To respect your environment is to respect yourself. By clearing your surroundings and getting organized, you will rid yourself of the clutter and some built-up anger as well.

This is worth applying to your digital surroundings too. A phone buzzing with fifty unread notifications, an inbox with four thousand unopened messages, a home screen crowded with apps you never meant to install — these create a low, constant hum of unfinished business that works exactly like the cluttered desk, except it fits in your pocket and follows you everywhere. Clearing it out — turning off notifications you don’t need, unsubscribing, deleting what you don’t use — is a small act, but it produces the same relief as cleaning out a closet.

We’re foolish not to organize our lives. We need certain systems to make things work. If a person’s desk is cluttered, it may indicate that he or she does not feel comfortable with order. Order, after all, means you’re getting something done. You have a beginning, middle and end. You plan to follow through on what you start, not leave calls unanswered and projects sidetracked. You’re going to start something, create a blueprint for finishing it, stay focused and get it done.

Some people have trouble getting started because they know from experience that an inner voice will criticize their every imperfect effort. You must change this scenario. Get started, no matter what. Ignore your negative voice. If necessary, it can speak to you later. You’re not going to be compulsive or obsessive. You’re not going to push yourself beyond normal limits and judge yourself and others harshly by how something gets done. What makes a difference is that it gets done. But it doesn’t happen unless we are organized.

Ask yourself where you are lacking in organization. Is it discipline? Do you feel uncomfortable when you know that you will not follow through on a specific task? A lot of writers never finish books or articles. They sit down, they get fidgety, they go to the refrigerator. They look for the phone to ring or they turn on the television to distract themselves. Many people spend too much time distracting themselves. Those who accomplish things are the ones who get organized and then focus in until the task gets done.

Act in Your Best Interests

Make a list of the things you do that do not serve your interests. Why do you take these actions, and who benefits from them? Don’t be afraid to break the old patterns you created when you were acting out of guilt or fear. Concentrate on doing things that will benefit you.

Make Your Word Your Bond

People become disenchanted when they cannot trust what you say. Then you have nothing on which to establish or maintain relationships. Frightened or insecure people are particularly prone to lying about who they are. They feel their true selves are not acceptable, so they lie about what they feel and do. A related maneuver, typical of teenagers, is to lie to feel independent and in control. While knowing that she must become autonomous, the child may fear that autonomy will alienate her parents. She does what she wants, but hides any behavior of which her parents may disapprove.

This pattern can repeat itself in adulthood. People may lie because they fear that being an individual will lead to negative feelings in a relationship. They may lie to feel the power of being the only one to know the whole story. Or they may feel so disempowered in life that they lie whenever the opportunity presents itself. They believe they have no resources within themselves to bring good things into their lives. There are no good reasons for lying. All spiritual traditions warn against it because lying impedes the development of the self and true relationships with others.

Unfortunately, lying has become the norm in today’s society. Many people use words as a means to an end, with little regard for the commitment that goes with them. A prime example of this schism is a political campaign and its ultimate results. You must stand by your word, even if it is based on a bad decision. It forms the basis of your integrity and serves as a foundation on which to build your self-worth and self-esteem.

Your word reflects your values to others; it shows that you are trustworthy. Suppose that you misprice something you plan to sell based upon an incomplete analysis of the relevant factors. Someone takes you up on the offer and you accept. It is your responsibility to stand by that price, even if it costs you time or money to do so. As you go through life, you must leave a legacy of being true to your word. People will respect you for it. While others cannot expect miracles from you, they can surely ask that you keep your word.

Set Attainable Goals

Don’t overwhelm yourself by attempting to change too much at once. You will only revert to your old habits. Instead, take one bad habit at a time and replace it with a good one. If you maintain a schedule, you have a much better chance of turning your life around. You may decide to eliminate one bad habit a week. If you are trying to improve your diet, you could eliminate sugar the first week, meat the second, caffeine the third, and so forth. Or you might work at a slower pace, eliminating one item every two or three weeks. The point is to make your goals attainable and the results evident.

Take Charge of Your Life

There comes a time when you must redirect your spirit and intellect to develop the persona you will project the rest of your life. That means you will have to be responsible for all of your actions all the time. You will have to stop living like a warthog, take chances and choose the options that move your life in a more powerful and positive direction. Now is the time to get going and do it.

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Dr. Gary Null is host of the nation’s longest running public radio program on alternative and nutritional health and a multi-award-winning documentary film director, including his recent Last Call to Tomorrow. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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