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CONCLUSION
We all want life to be easy and fun but Howard expected and even demanded that it be that way. His excuses of, “It’s not my turn” justified his irrational thinking. It allowed him to see others as being too demanding and unreasonable. He could make himself feel good about his behavior and thereby avoiding ever questioning if it made any sense.
In children, we see this behavior as annoying. But as they progress into adulthood, these same children become the problem employees and possibly the abusive mate or substance abusing parents. Despite all of his justifications for his Stinky Thinking, Howard ultimately had some very negative consequences.
The Exercise helps you realize that your Justifications for your Stinky Thinking may make you feel better but it keeps you from changing your self-talk to Good Thinking. The exercise gives you a tool to use to get around your irrational Justifications. We call it a Reality Test. If you use it, you may learn to override your habituated
Stinky Thinking.
As a parent or teacher, this Reality Test is one of those exercises that you may want to enlarge and post somewhere so your child will have a cue to challenge what is their typical way of dealing with situations.
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