OUR BLOG

I want to tell you a story.  It’s kinda funny and kinda sad at the same time, but something I’m able to laugh about.

What constitutes a good day in your world? And what makes a bad day a bad day?

It’s all a matter of perspective, isn’t it?

There’s what happens and then there’s how you view it. Some see snow falling and cringe. Others admire the beauty.

It was bothering me … taking up mental and emotional space … and I wasn’t doing what I needed to do to resolve the issue, so it continued to bother me.

What was it? An issue with my accountant. I’ll tell you more in a moment.

But does it matter what the issue was?

No.

Because life is full of stuff you have to deal with.  If it isn’t one thing, it’s another.

The issues themselves don’t matter.  

The only thing that matters … and it matters a lot … is this:

Do you deal with them … or don’t you?

More to the point …

What do people want more than anything when it comes to the conversations and interactions they’re engaged in, especially those that are difficult or have the potential to become tense and lead to conflict?

When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy.”

What that Means for Your Life

It’s December 1944 and a baby girl is born in the worst slum in Europe, The Liberties, in Dublin, Ireland.

It’s not a happy childhood. She experiences grinding poverty. Her father’s a violent drunk who spends all the money he makes on alcohol. He’s gone most of the time and neglects the children. They don’t have enough to eat. Her mother, whom she dearly loves, becomes sick and dies. She’s 10.

She does her best to take care of her five siblings by herself, the youngest of which is three, getting up at 4 am to go to the market to dig through the trash. She reclaims the produce vendors have discarded, cooks it, and feeds it to the kids before getting them off to school.

I have to tell on myself.

I’m pretty scared to drive around big cities.

So, when I booked a speech on Long Island, New York, I faced a dilemma. I couldn’t get out to where I needed to go and back without paying a small fortune to a limo company or attempting a series of really problematic connections via train and taxi. And I sure didn’t want to drive.

Rent a car and drive in New York City, coming out of LaGuardia and onto the Long Island Expressway? Oooooh baby, no thanks!

You know what I’ll do if I’m feeling crabby in the morning? I’ll put on the Pharrell Williams’ song, Happy. Everybody knows it. It’s a great song and it makes me feel good … like a room without a roof!

Why? Why would I do that? I’m incredibly busy and my plate is almost always overflowing. Do I actually have plenty of time to listen to music and dance around in the morning? Not really.

But it makes me happy … and that’s important … so I make time.

Here’s what got me thinking about all this. I was reading one of the daily quotes from Abraham-Hicks, and it kinda smacked me up side the head.

There are a thousand and one reasons not to do it.

What’s that? Take on something big, challenging, scary, and all-encompassing in your life or your business.

You know, there’s nothing wrong with settling into a routine and getting comfortable, but when you feel called to do something BIG, you feel called to do something BIG.

The year is 1989 … October. The place … East Germany. Tens of thousands of people are out in the streets demonstrating for freedom … and against the rule of the communist party. The Berlin wall is soon to come down, but, at this moment, the government is determined to stay in power by any means. A showdown is brewing.

Now, imagine you’re a young soldier doing an 18 month stint of compulsory service in the East German army.

On several nights, you’re ordered to get on a truck with a baton in your pocket, at the ready to go out and beat up protestors. And, at any moment, you could be ordered to wield a gun instead and shoot people.

The protestors are regular people, the folks you interact with in the community every day, including members of your family, your friends, your classmates from school. They aren’t your enemies. Quite the contrary. You wish you could be out there with them.