What is your purpose in life? Do you have a goal for your life? If you don’t have a goal, you might want to consider the goal that is the basis of this workbook. This workbook is based on the idea that the best goal in life anyone can have is to love and be loved.
Love is defined as the act of caring, for the purpose of creating happiness and success. There are three basic types of love: self-love, love of another, and social love. The assignments in this workbook are all about self-love, love of another and social love. You will probably notice that there are assignments that deal directly with love and relationships. It will be obvious how these assignments help you reach your life goal of loving better.
There are other assignments in this workbook that do not look like they are about love. For example, there are assignments about being responsible for managing your time. You might wonder how these articles are about love. The answer is easy. Love is an action. Sure, love might start with a feeling. But until it is expressed, it is an idea waiting to happen. The assignments that don’t seem directly related to love are indirectly related to love – these assignments help you take care of personal matters that might interfere with your ability to love.
Please be aware that if you are expecting flowery, mushy, romantic assignments on love, you won’t find them in this workbook. In this workbook, love is defined as an action with the specific goal of creating something: happiness and success. Love takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of hard work. This workbook is a blueprint for all the hard work you can do to put more love in your life. Follow the blueprint and you can be more happy and successful.
Good Life Table of Contents
- INTRODUCTION
- 1
- LETTER TO A FELLOW TRAVELER
- 8
- HEALTHY SEXUALITY: MODULE ONE
- Deviant and Healthy Sexual Behavior
- 9
- Healthy Sexual Behavior
- 12
- Four Types of Healthy Sexual Behavior
- 14
- Age of Consent and Deviant Sex
- 17
- Consent and Deviant Sex
- 20
- Power and Deviant Sex
- 22
- Harm and Deviant Sex
- 24
- Your Script for Healthy Sex
- 26
- THOUGHT PATTERNS: MODULE ONE
- Thinking is the Key
- 27
- Thinking Errors
- 30
- Relationship Thinking Errors
- 33
- Communication Thinking Errors
- 36
- Self-Awareness Thinking Errors
- 39
- Accountability Thinking Errors
- 42
- Emotion Thinking Errors
- 45
- Sexual Thinking Errors
- 47
- EMOTIONS: MODULE ONE
- Four Basic Emotions
- 50
- All Emotions are a Gift
- 52
- Three Ways to Express Emotions
- 54
- Secret of Anger
- 57
- The Problem with Happiness
- 59
- Sadness
- 61
- Fear
- 63
- Express Emotions in a Healthy Way
- 65
- RELATIONSHIPS: MODULE ONE
- Love is the Act of Caring
- 67
- The Inner Circle of Love
- 69
- Boundaries in a Love Relationship
- 72
- True Love and Falling in Love are Different
- 76
- True Love and Romantic Love are Different
- 78
- True Love and Dependency are Different
- 80
- Love Requires Effort
- 82
- How to Give Love
- 84
- Love Creates Happiness and Success
- 86
- Love Takes Place in a Relationship
- 88
- The Importance of Self-Love
- 90
- SELF-MANAGEMENT: MODULE ONE
- Life is Difficult
- 92
- Self-Management is a Skill
- 94
- Delay of Gratification
- 96
- Responsibility
- 98
- Dedication to the Truth
- 100
- Lies and Truth
- 102
- Surrender
- 104
- Laziness
- 106
- Moderation
- 108
- Collaboration
- 112
- Conflict Management
- 115
- HEALTHY SEXUALITY: MODULE TWO
- Self-Mastery Makes a Relationship Great
- 118
- Taking Care of Yourself
- 121
- Self-Soothing
- 123
- Self-Confrontation
- 126
- Self-Mastery
- 129
- Hugging till Relaxed
- 132
- Your Sexual Prime
- 135
- Eyes Open Kissing and Foreplay
- 138
- Sizzling Sex
- 140
- Sexual Fantasies
- 142
- The F-Bomb
- 145
- THOUGHT PATTERNS: MODULE TWO
- Optimists and Pessimists
- 147
- Learned Helplessness causes Pessimism and Depression
- 151
- The Optimistic Life
- 154
- Using Distraction to Cope with Adversity
- 157
- Using Debate to Cope with Adversity
- 160
- Pessimistic Thinking Errors
- 165
- Flexible Optimism
- 167
- EMOTIONS: MODULE TWO
- What is Happiness?
- 170
- Good Cheer is a Trait
- 173
- How to Create Happiness
- 176
- Circumstances that Do and Don’t Make You Happy
- 180
- Happiness about the Past – Gratitude
- 183
- Happiness about the Past – Forgiveness
- 187
- Happiness about the Future
- 190
- Happiness about the Present
- 194
- Pleasures
- 197
- Gratification
- 201
- Universal Virtues
- 204
- RELATIONSHIPS: MODULE TWO
- How to Destroy Your Marriage
- 207
- De-escalations
- 211
- Principle One: Emotional and Intellectual Intimacy
- 214
- Principle Two: Increase Your Fondness and Respect
- 217
- Principle Three: Turn Toward Each Other
- 220
- Principle Four: Let Your Partner Influence You
- 223
- The Two Kinds of Relationship Conflict
- 227
- Principle Five: Solve Your Solvable Problems
- 231
- Principle Six: Overcoming Gridlock
- 236
- Principle Seven: Create Shared Meaning
- 240
- SELF-MANAGEMENT: MODULE TWO
- Self-Management
- 243
- Duty to Self
- 245
- Goals and Planning
- 248
- How to Solve Problems: The Why Sandwich
- 252
- Behavior Cycles
- 257
- How to Stop a Behavior Cycle
- 261
- Coping Skills
- 264
- Relapse Prevention
- 267
- How to Stop a Relapse
- 270
- MODULE EXAMS
- Letter from a Fellow Traveler
- 273
- Healthy Sexuality Module One
- 273
- Thought Patterns Module One
- 274
- Emotions Module One
- 274
- Relationships Module One
- 275
- Self-Management Module One
- 276
- Healthy Sexuality Module Two
- 277
- Thought Patterns Module Two
- 277
- Emotions Module Two
- 278
- Relationships Module Two
- 279
- Self-Management Module Two
- 280