It’s In The Cards

By Carol Rickard, LCSW
It's In The Cards

When you come in to one of my live seminars, one of the first things you’ll be handed as you take your seat is a playing card. It may be a king or it may be a three…. The point of it is: You DON’T get to CHOOSE what card you get & you can only play the card you’re dealt.

To me, this is the mirror to life—where we are often faced with many situations that we don’t get to choose whether or not they happen.

Nobody chooses to….. 
• have depression or anxiety paralyze his or her life.
• have a family member or friend pass away.
• become an addict or an alcoholic.
• have his or her world turned upside down.
• become unemployed  or get laid off.

There once was a time when I didn’t play these “life cards” very well. The truth is, I was too busy blaming and complaining about the cards I was dealt. I spent a lot of time focusing on “why me?”

That all changed for me the day a friend sent me an email containing a video called Finish Strong. It was life-changing for me! For the first time in my life I truly understood the POWER OF CHOICE. Instead, I began to focus on the “what can I do?”

Today, this is the first LifeTool I’d like to share with you! The video can be found for free at SimpleTruths.com. Go to Movies and look for Finish Strong. You will notice there are a total of 53 videos there you can view!

Here is the second LifeTool I’d like to share with you. It came to me as I finished watching the video. I call these Artinyms (Arti is Sanskrit for describe). I consider them my gifts from God to share with others!

It's In The Cards

~ To Living Well TODAY! ~

Posted in Coping Skills, Stress

About Carol Rickard, LCSW

Carol L. Rickard, LCSW, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 30 years of experience specializing in stress management and wellness program development for healthcare and corporate settings. Known as "America's Workplace Wellbeing Authority" Carol specializes in creating practical, evidence-based training solutions for high-stress professionals. As founder and CEO of WellYOUniversity, LLC, Carol has trained thousands of healthcare workers, corporate teams, and organizational leaders. Her evidence-based approach, called SMARTheory™, transforms complex wellness concepts into immediately actionable tools that work during 12-hour shifts, high-pressure meetings, and real-world crises. A prolific author, Carol has written 25 books on stress and wellness, contributed weekly to Esperanza Magazine, and created "The WELL YOU Show", a nationally syndicated wellness show on Central New Jersey Network. She has been featured expert in national media outlets and speaks regularly at conferences, healthcare systems, and corporate events. Carol's expertise spans keynote presentations, comprehensive training programs, organizational wellness consulting, and crisis response training. Her clients consistently praise her ability to deliver practical strategies that participants can implement immediately, creating lasting change in both professional and personal settings.

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