MANAGING CRISIS; when you?re too good at it

When you are acclaimed for excellence during times of crisis you may not feel so good in a non-crisis environment. You may not shine so bright, perform so well, be quite so acclaimed. If crisis is how you satisfy your personal need to be needed, to feel accomplished, to be respected, to be heard, to be noticed, blah blah blah, then you will naturally seek out, create, attract, be drawn into situations that will allow you to meet this need. Your environments and relationships will be filled to the brim with one crisis after another.

Perhaps there's a better way to get your need met. Perhaps there's a way to feel needed and still exist in peaceful, cooperative, and synergistic environments. It's amazing to watch the content and features of a person's life break apart and rebuild with almost the same irreverent qualities. People change mates but the essence of the relationship is the same. People change jobs and the same complaints emerge as before. People get out of debt, lose weight, move to different cities, and nothing really changes. It's a scary thing. I've seen the inside view and it's very scary. This déjà vu type phenomenon has left me baffled and disheartened. Here's the deal; when we treat the symptoms, the root cause remains unaffected and it emerges again and again. Our outer lives tell the same story over and over like a broken record until we finally get it. The outer reflects the inner. The outer is a symptom; the inner is the root cause. The outer is the image in the mirror; the inner is the real object. You would not stand in the mirror with the intention of washing your face and wash the reflection of your face in the mirror, would you? ? I didn't think so. Well that is exactly what we are doing when we focus on treating our symptoms.

A fundamental place to begin transformation is by being responsible for understanding your personal needs and ensuring that they are met in an appropriate context. Get your needs met appropriately and permanently and your life will be transformed for sure.

Robin Harris is a DesignerLife Coach whose focus is to empower self-motivated entrepreneurs and individuals to achieve their greatest potential while discovering and honoring their core values. Contact Robin through her web site http://www.designerlifecoaching.com or by email at robin@designerlifecoaching.com

In The News:

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(L-R) UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, Chairman and CEO of General Motors Richard Wagoner and Chairman and CEO of Chrysler LLC Robert Nardelli wait to testify on November 19, 2008 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Chastened executives from the Big Three US carmakers will return to Washington this week in a bid to convince lawmakers that their companies are worth saving.(AFP/File/Tim Sloan)AP - Ford Motor Co. is asking Congress for a $9 billion "stand-by line of credit" to stabilize its business, but says it doesn't expect to tap it.



Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday Dec. 2, 2008. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)AP - A stock market reassured by Ford Motor Co.'s assessment of its financial health bounced back Tuesday, regaining some of the ground lost in the previous session's huge drop. The Dow Jones industrials rose 180 points, regaining more than a quarter of Monday's nearly 680-point plunge.



Thousands of steel workers protest against prospective job losses near EU headquarters in Brussels. The global economic crisis swept on to another watershed on Tuesday with EU ministers targeting a huge spending boost, stocks gyrating, the US in recession and central banks looking for new rescue routes.(AFP/Dominique Faget)AP - Walloped by the recession, automakers' U.S. sales are plummeting as hard-to-get credit, job losses and other stresses make many Americans wary of taking on big-ticket financial commitments.



An anti-goverment protester reacts to the news that Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat's ruling People's Power Party must disband at Suvarnabhumi Airport Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008 in Bangkok Thailand. Somchai says he has accepted a court ruling to step down because of electoral fraud committed by his political party. (AP Photo/Ed Wray)AP - Thailand's prime minister was ousted Tuesday after weeks of protests closed the capital's airports, stranding 300,000 travelers. Protesters promised to lift their siege, and international flights were expected to resume Friday.



In this Jan. 8, 2007 file photo, Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as 'Chemical Ali,' for his alleged use of chemical weapons against Iraqi Kurds, listens to prosecution evidence during the Operation Anfal trial, in Baghdad, Iraq. A special Iraqi court has sentenced Saddam Hussein's cousin, known as 'Chemical Ali,' to death for his role in the 1991 suppression of a Shiite uprising Tuesday, Dec, 2, 2008. Ali Hassan al-Majid already faces death by hanging after being convicted last year for his role in the killing of tens of thousands of Kurds in a crackdown in the late 1980s. But that execution has been delayed by legal wrangling.  (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, Pool)AP - A special Iraqi court sentenced Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin, "Chemical Ali" Hassan al-Majid, to death Tuesday after convicting him of crimes against humanity for his part in crushing the 1991 Shiite uprising in southern Iraq.



President-elect Barack Obama, center, leaves a local gym following his morning workout Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008 in Philadelphia, Pa. Walking out with him are members of the Secret Service. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)AP - President-elect Barack Obama pledged quick work Tuesday on an economic recovery plan to include tax cuts and increased federal spending, and told the nation's governors he wants their advice in designing a package to help their hardhit states.



Mumbai residents sit near the boat landing behind the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai which was open again after attacks in had closed off the area in recent days Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008. India picked up intelligence in recent months that terrorists were plotting attacks against Mumbai targets, an official said Tuesday, as the government demanded that Islamabad hand over suspected terrorists believed living in Pakistan. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)AP - India picked up intelligence in recent months that Pakistan-based terrorists were plotting attacks against Mumbai targets, an official said Tuesday, as the government demanded that Islamabad hand over suspected terrorists believed living in Pakistan.



Karolinska Institute student Andrew Ketterer, left, faces a mannequin in 'body-swap' illusion test, a method whereby people can experience the illusion that either a mannequin or another person's body is their own body Monday Dec. 1, 2008 in Stockholm. In a study presented Tuesday, neuroscientists at Stockholm's renowned Karolinska Institute show how they got volunteers wearing virtual reality goggles to experience the illusion of swapping bodies with a mannequin and a real person. (AP Photo/Niklas Larsson)AP - Shaking hands with yourself is an amusing out-of-body experience. The illusion of having your stomach slashed with a kitchen knife, not so much.



Pop star Britney Spears leaves Fountain Studios in Wembley, London, after her X Factor performance on Saturday November 29, 2008. (AP Photo/PA, Carl Court)AP - She did it again: Britney Spears was the most popular search term on Yahoo for the fourth year in a row — her seventh time topping the list.



New York Giants' Plaxico Burress, right, arrives at Manhattan Supreme Court for arraignment with an unidentified man Monday, Dec. 1, 2008, in New York. Burress accidentally shot himself at a Manhattan nightclub Friday evening and was treated at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He was released Saturday. (AP Photo/David Karp)AP - Plaxico Burress arrived at Giants Stadium on Tuesday, facing the possibility that his career with the Super Bowl champions could be over and he could land in jail after accidentally shooting himself in the thigh at a nightclub.



An anti-government demonstrator chases after a suspected pro-government supporter in Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport on December 1, 2008. (Kerek Wongsa =/Reuters)Reuters - Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat was banned from politics for five years and his party disbanded on Tuesday, spurring jubilant anti-government protesters to end their blockades of Bangkok's airports.



Incumbent Senator Saxby Chambliss reacts as Alaska Governor Sarah Palin addresses the crowd during a rally in Duluth, Georgia December 1, 2008. (Tami Chappell/Reuters)Reuters - The state of Georgia votes in a run-off election for the Senate on Tuesday that will help decide whether Democrats gain a big enough majority in the chamber to ram through legislation virtually at will.



New built Opel cars are pictured at a plant of German car manufacturer Opel in Bochum November 17, 2008. (Ina Fassbender/Reuters)Reuters - Ford Motor Co said on Tuesday it expects to break even or be profitable in 2011 and seeks access to up to $9 billion of government bridge loans to support its restructuring.



Poland's Finance Minister Jan Vincent Rostowski (L) chats with Britain's Chancellor Alistair Darling at a European Finance Ministers council meeting in Brussels, December 2, 2008. (Sebastien Pirlet/Reuters)Reuters - U.S. automakers rushed to submit restructuring plans to secure government aid on Tuesday while European ministers and Japan took steps to pump credit into the economy.



David Roseboro fills up his pickup truck at a gas station in Charlotte, North Carolina September 29, 2008. (Chris Keane/Reuters)Reuters - Oil fell below $49 a barrel on Tuesday, after reversing early losses in response to a rally in U.S. and European shares.



Members of ZAKA, Israel's non-governmental rescue-and-recovery organization which specializes in collecting human remains to ensure a proper Jewish burial, speak with policemen after performing religious rituals in front of Nariman House in Mumbai's Colaba area, December 1, 2008. (Jayanta Shaw/Reuters)Reuters - India demanded Pakistan hand over 20 of its most-wanted fugitives as a sign of good faith, while both sides Tuesday tried to cool tensions over the Mumbai attacks before a visit by Washington's top diplomat.



Reuters - Two U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan have been charged with the abuse of Afghan detainees, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

A Seattle police officer helps a person injured after a mock nuclear 'dirty bomb' explosion in a 2003 terrorism response exercise. (Robert Sorbo/Reuters)Reuters - The chances of a terror attack on a major city somewhere in the world using weapons of mass destruction are better than even, according to a task force mandated by the U.S. Congress, The Washington Post reported in its Tuesday edition.



An anti-government protester was killed and 22 wounded in a grenade attack at Don Mueang airport in Bangkok. Thai anti-government activists have agreed to end protests that have paralysed Bangkok's airports, after a court stripped Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat of his post and outlawed the ruling party.(AFP/Str)AFP - Thai anti-government activists on Tuesday agreed to end protests that have paralysed Bangkok's airports, after a court stripped Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat of his post and outlawed the ruling party.



Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that Islamabad has suggested setting up a AFP - Pakistan offered on Tuesday to work hand-in-hand with India to track down those responsible for the Mumbai attacks but declined to respond immediately to a demand that it hand over 20 terrorist suspects.




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