Honeymoon, Frustration & Radical Thinking

There are essentially 3 stages of this process:

People often start the Greenlight program in a honeymoon period. They are hopeful, excited, feel relief, open, etc. It is very much like being in a new relationship - gushy, lovey-dovey, leaves you likely to want to preach or testify. But that doesn't last forever. 

Then frustration enters the picture: eventually people begin to notice each other's imperfections, life challenges cause frustrations, and they might start wondering if they made the right choice. Break-up language is introduced. In making any type of behavioral changes you can experience feeling overwhelmed, angry, anxious, and like you have been sold a bill of goods. You start to think: this is too hard, I am not sure I can do this for that long, this isn't working for me, I can't imagine doing this forever. 

People often don't realize there is a third phase. They go from being very excited to giving up. 

If you push through the frustration, the next phase is acceptance. Or radical acceptance. It is about changing language and feelings. It is about getting to a place of feeling calm, being honest and realistic, about feeling empowered, and about being fluent. "This is frustrating, and these things annoy me, but this is really the best thing I have going." In terms of this program, the acceptance sounds like: this works for me. 

It is important to know and recognize your break-up language, and know that you are very likely to move back and forth through the stages. Being aware of where you are can help you get to where you want to be.