Frustrated With Life?

For several years now, my friend Edison Guzman has sponsored an Internet site inviting others to write about their frustrations and to comment on those writings, essentially either sympathetically or analytically.

We recently published a 205-page book, Frustrated with Life? You Are Not Alone!, presenting hundreds of responses along with our comments and suggestions in nine categories listed in the descending order of the number of postings to each: Life, Miscellaneous, Relationships, Family, Work, Money, Weird, School, and Health. The posting folk were anonymous, the posts labelled by number. Many of the posts were profane, clearly heartfelt. We did not edit them. I have chosen not to put them here, only a selection from our quotations and reading list.

Each section starts with a quotation and a statistic and ends with book resources to help the perplexed.

Life

“…fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run….” Rudyard Kipling

"Life is what we make it. Always has been. Always will be." Grandma Moses

“The trick is to enjoy life. Don't wish away your days, waiting for better ones." Marjorie Pay Hinckley

“Keep in mind that you become what you focus on most of the time.” Edson R. Guzman

One of our recommended books is R. Hanson (2013) Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence

Miscellaneous

“All great changes are preceded by chaos.”  Deepak Chopra

Recommended: N. Hill (2013) Positive Mental Attitude: The Science of Success by Napoleon Hill

Relationships

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” Groucho Marx

Recommended resources: J. Shufeldt (2014) Ingredients of Outliers: A Recipe for Personal Achievement and D. Carnegie (2010) How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Family

“All that we love deeply becomes part of us.” Helen Keller

Recommended reading: R. Eyre and L. Eyre (2014) The Turning: Why the State of the Family Matters and What the World Can Do about It

Work

“Individual commitment to a group effort---that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” Vince Lombardi

Recommended reading: J. Goins (2015) The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do

Money

“If you’re not happy with what you have, imagine not having it.” Anonymous

Recommended reading (a favorite of mine): T.J. Stanley (2010) The Millionaire Next Door

Weird

"Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward." C. S. Lewis

Recommended: F. Day (2015) You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost): A Memoir

School

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned at school.” Albert Einstein

Recommended: A. Duckworth (2016) Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Health

“Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.” Buddha

“It took a lot of willpower, but I finally gave up dieting.” Anonymous

Recommended: L. Shea (2015) Ten-Minute Yoga for Stress Relief, Focus, and Renewal

The Book’s Final Three Chapters

“Live with Purpose, On Purpose,” which includes Edison Guzman’s trails and triumphs after coming to America alone as a teenager from the Dominican Republic.

“My Heroic Quadriplegic Wife,” my tribute to Tina Su Cooper, who is inspiring to all who know her.

“Pulling the Rug from Under Me,” How Amy E. Alexander did not let the accident that left her quadriplegic in her twenties ruin her life.

                          ###

Douglas Winslow Cooper, Ph.D., is a former Harvard science professor. He still publishes, and he helps others write and publish their books via his business website, http://WriteYourBookWithMe.com. His life's central theme has been his half-century romance with his wife, Tina Su Cooper, now quadriplegic for over a decade due to multiple sclerosis, receiving 24/7 nursing care at home, as discussed at their website here.