What a long, strange trip it\'s been

Hi everyone.  I am a big believer of strategies in dealing with things.  I have tried to set up lofty strategies to achieve 'goals' .  But for me, I have found that just setting up strategies for the smaller, daily things solve more problems overall. Be it sleep, food, depression, mania, anger, addiction, whatever. I have NEVER been successful solving ALL of ANYTHING at once. There are no silver bullets in my life. I have never lost all my extra weight all at once, or became a good listener all at once, or a more gentle person all at once, never stopped drinking all at once, etc, etc. But for me, I do find real satisfaction in my ability to solve small, daily things. These are obtainable. And then I try to develop things into strategies. AND see if I have some discipline to use them. In the end, my small successes give me hope. For me looking back in my past, the summation of all my small victories FAR outweigh any huge goal I EVER set.  So small strategies. The best analogy is how I once tried out a vegetarian diet. It was hard at first. But over time I built up a list of good meals it became easy and delicious. I probably had a 1 in 10 success rate in finding sure-fire meals versus lousy food, but I got there.  I am trying this site to get a little more focus on peoples' strategies in the areas of bipolar and anxiety....I should throw in low self esteem too probably. I hope to be a good listener, get some of your good ideas, and share some strategies too. Overall my goal is simple, daily peace. Over time I have found strategies that bring me peace. I have had to give up some 'traditional' beliefs and revamp my lifestyle to get here, but it has been worth it. It was pain and suffering that made me change. And I still suffer a lot....a lot. Just like many of the journal postings here show the pain. But even my little taste of peace has made me want to continue looking, and share with others so they may suffer less (yes I read Buddhist stuff too...more on that later).We will see over time, thanks for listening,notfound404