Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were allowed to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could be. We could never fly.

Now as I sit here today, I wonder what we were missing, or how we could have functioned more as a caring resource and not responded with a canned bag of regurgitated rules, policies or biased opinions. Your talk today made me remember why I got into healthcare to begin with: To make a real difference in the lives of people every day, to know that their lives are better in some way because of the assistance I provided, the directives I shared, or the encouragement I gave to them or a member of their family. Somewhere along my career, I got lost in all the politics and regulations and forgot about the person.

Life should be viewed from this lens: The only thing that ever matters in success or achievement is your achieving the things that you want to achieve. So, if you’re setting standards and you’re feeling uncomfortable, tweak the standards and ratchet it back a notch. Give yourself a break. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt. Lighten up. Be easier. Go slower. Take it easy. Have more fun. Love yourself more. Laugh more. Appreciate more.

The ticker tape metaphor offers us the perfect example of how our psychology works and what we can do, or rather what we can choose to do in order to return to a place of psychological and emotional balance.